Percy Jackson: Endgame
by the8horcrux
Summary: Spoilers for Endgame. The Decimation is complete and it didn't spare demigods. As the remaining half-bloods gather together with their fellow Avengers, they will have to unravel time itself to undo the loss of their loved ones. COMPLETE! SEQUEL UP! Go read it!
1. Death By a Thousand Cuts

**THIS CHAPTER DOES NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME. HOWEVER, THE SECOND ONE DOES. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.**

**A/N Hey guys! This story is in the Percy Jackson: Mission Marvel and is the fourth and final instalment in this series. If you're in the mood for more PJ/Avengers crossovers, go check out my other stories (plus this probably won't make any sense if you don't). **

**The first one is called Percy Jackson: Mission Marvel and it's about how Percy and co. meet the Avengers and become Avengers. It starts before Winter Soldier and ends with the Avengers and the seven including Nico defeating Ultron.**

**The second one is called Percy Jackson: Civil War and it takes place during Captain America: Civil War (I know, you'd have never guessed). The demigods break up as well as the Avengers and the story ends with the demigods on Steve's side (Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Leo, and Hazel) escaping from prison while the demigods on Tony's side (Jason, Piper, and Frank) turn a blind eye.**

**The third story is called Percy Jackson: Infinity War and it takes place during Infinity War (I know, my story names are so creative). The story ends with the Snap and yes, the demigods are dusted as well. I didn't have the gods get dusted because reasons.**

**So yeah. I guess you could read this story now since I basically just explained all of the other ones, but I still highly suggest reading all my other stories. Enjoy, and as always, review! PLEASE! At the end of every chapter I will leave a shout out to every person who reviewed and answer their questions if/and they leave a question, UNLESS it involves me spoiling the story. Sorry about the long author's note, I promise this will be the only one that's this long. ON WITH THE STORY, and remember, we're in the Endgame now.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Death by a Thousand Cuts**

**Percy Jackson  
****Avengers Compound  
Approximately one week after the Snap**

Percy couldn't wrap his head around it, and he didn't particularly want to, either.

Annabeth couldn't be…. she just couldn't. He refused to believe it. She wasn't. She wasn't, it wasn't true. Hazel was the one who broke the bad news, after he woke up. He nearly released the ocean again. It hadn't worked. He couldn't believe it. Thanos had won. The bad guy _never _won. It was one of the permanent facts in life. The eleventh commandment. _Thou shalt not let the bad guy win._

And yet he did. The Mad Titan, of whom Poseidon had tried to warn him of four years earlier.

Percy was going to propose to Annabeth this year. He had figured they were both old enough. But now…

He would have liked to put his head in his hands and sob, but that wouldn't help his friends. They were just as devastated as he was.

Annabeth, Leo, Wanda, Sam, Bucky, T'Challa, Shuri, Nick Fury… More reports were coming in every day. Governments were collapsing, planes were crashing, cars were wrecking, and families were being broken apart by the hour.

It was worse than any nightmare Percy had ever had, which was saying something, since he was a demigod. Nico woke up every morning with a splitting headache, and he was gone now, saying he was going to check in with the Underworld with his dad.

It was just Hazel and Percy now. Sitting in the Avengers Compound, comforting each other with their presence.

Hazel had delivered Annabeth's last words. _"If I'm gone, don't let Percy—"_Don't let Percy what? Don't let Percy be an idiot? Or better yet, don't let Percy be a Seaweed Brain. That was one of her favorites. Or maybe even, 'Don't let Percy die.' That would be something she would say. _Why? _Percy thought. _Why would you leave me like that? Why would you leave me—us—with the consequence that was Thanos? _

It wasn't her fault, he knew. But maybe it was easier for him to blame _someone. _They had no idea where Thanos was. Percy had been informed (he had been unconscious at the time) that after Thanos snapped his fingers, he went into a portal from the Space Stone.

After he had released the ocean, he'd horribly weak, which, to be honest, he should have expected. He healed much faster then he did last time, and this time he didn't even have Calypso to heal him.

None of them knew anything about Space. Maybe if they had some sort of expert… but they didn't. Percy sadly had to assume after this that Planet Earth was one of the least developed in the Galaxy.

Those thoughts brought back a faint memory, from almost ten years ago now. _Whoa. _That made him feel old.

"_Oh, I love mortals. They have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come _so-o-o _far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me." _

Percy remembered how awed he'd been, at the age of twelve, learning about this new world with gods and monsters.

He'd hated Mr. D. That was his only problem. For two weeks, for two glorious weeks, he'd been just a normal demigod, or as normal as a demigod could possibly be. No quests, or monster attacks, or hearing about the deaths of friends. Just him and his few friends in the Hermes cabin, learning his way around camp. Gosh, that seemed like a thousand years ago.

Then that fated capture-the-flag game. He'd discovered who he was. The son of Poseidon. The person who would save Olympus…. or the person who would destroy it.

His life changed forever.

He became the savior of Olympus by the time he was sixteen. He was the opposite of normal. But at least he had a girlfriend.

Next he'd gotten captured, abducted by the alien known as Juno. He went on the quest against Gaia and then…

Tartarus.

The worst thing that could possibly happen to a demigod, they'd said. It was a miracle that he'd survived, they'd said.

Well, Percy could think of an instance that would be even harder to survive, an instance where he had had no control whatsoever about who lived and who died. And yet he survived yet again.

He was chosen out of the universe Infinity Stone lottery. He, Hazel, and Nico. But not Annabeth or Leo.

This time Percy really did bury his face in his hands. _Why couldn't it have been me? I deserved it, not her. I was the one who nearly drowned the goddess of misery in poison. I was the one who considered joining Kronos. She was the best out of all of us. She had no notable powers, but she was the most powerful person I knew._

Percy couldn't think about it, or he knew that he would lose control of his rapidly slipping sanity. He forced himself to think about better times. The Giant War was finished. Gaia had been destroyed. And yet Percy could never find peace. The Fates wouldn't allow it.

The Avengers tracked him down, and he had started down this freak show path of different gods and different monsters and enhanced individuals and robots. He not only had to worry about the mythological world, he had to worry about supernatural and mortal threats as well.

Great. Thanks, Avengers.

Then the Accords happened. The rift that had always been between him and Jason had widened so large that Percy was sure that he could never cross it.

But if Jason came back right then, he would embrace him with open arms. Percy was ready for forgiveness. He just wasn't sure Jason was.

Boy, Percy sure wasn't good at thinking happy thoughts, huh?

Steve, Natasha, Bruce, and Thor were the only ones here. Jason, Tony, Piper, and Frank were still missing, and it was unclear about who was dusted or not. Percy had to believe that they were still alive, though it seemed highly unlikely.

Pepper had just sent word that she was coming to stay there. No one objected.

Percy had refused to call Camp Half-Blood, despite Hazel's pleadings. He couldn't face that. Not yet. The camp would blame him, he was sure of it. He was the one who was supposed to fight, to protect them from alien threats.

Percy forced himself to look at all the facts, like Annabeth would. Half the demigods in the world were dead. The gods' followers were the source of their powers. Demigods were now one of the only followers in the world. The gods would be severely debilitated. Heck, the surviving demigods would be severely debilitated too.

The monsters would surely try to destroy the camps, now that there were half the demigods to take care of them. He wondered if satyrs would be snapped too.

_I hope Grover isn't…_

There were so many unanswered questions, so many things that had to be resolved in Percy's mind. They had to hold out hope that there was some way, some time that could let them reverse the things that had happened.

Hazel got up quietly and muttered something about dinner. Percy made a small noise of consensus, though he didn't really believe that she was hungry. None of them had eaten much since Thanos had come to Earth. It was just an excuse for her to be alone.

Pretty soon, Natasha came and sat down next to him. She was silent for a minute, and then said, "Hey."

Percy didn't look over. "Hey." His voice sounded hollow after so many days of neglected use.

"Steve made peanut butter sandwiches. I guess that was the only thing he could think of. I hear Hazel makes good eggs."

Percy smiled slightly. He remembered when Percy, Hazel, and Frank had gone on a quest together, and Hazel had made eggs for him and Frank. They were delicious, or maybe it was because Percy had been ravenous at the time.

"Oh, good. I was worried your face muscles had forgotten how to smile. This isn't the Percy we knew."

Percy turned to look at the former assassin for the first time in a while. Her short blond hair had grown a bit, so the tips were back to her natural red. Her eyes looked red around the edges and weary, but she managed a smile for Percy's benefit.

"Yeah, well, I haven't had much practice lately." Percy muttered, admitting the obvious.

"None of us have." Nat said, again saying the obvious. "But it's not gonna help you or any of us if you just sit here sulking like Thor over there." She jerked her head over to Thor, who was brooding in the corner like always.

Percy had to admit he'd screwed up a lot, but then again they all had. Maybe Thor should have aimed for the arm, not the chest. Though the head would have been good too, Percy wouldn't put it past Thanos to have his hand snap its fingers even though its head was dislocated.

"Come on, Percy." Natasha said. Percy started. He realized that this was one of the first times that Natasha had called him by his first name. He'd never really talked to her much. She was one of the few Avengers that he'd never really interacted with much.

Annabeth had told him that if you broke the protective wall she was actually a fun person to hang out with. Well, he might as well try.

"Yeah, okay." He said finally. "Maybe I'll make some blue cookies for dessert."

"Deal." Natasha stood up and offered her hand to help him up. Percy smacked it away playfully and stood up himself.

"Will you give me ten bucks if I manage to make Thor smile too?" Natasha asked. Percy grinned for the first time in days. "How about ten drachmas?"

"What are drachmas?"

* * *

That night as Percy devoured his bacon and eggs, he wasted time explaining to Natasha what drachmas were. It was a pretty interesting conversation, and it helped keep his mind off recent events.

So the Avengers managed to make each other smile every once and a while, but whenever someone stopped talking, or they were alone, you could make out muffled crying sounds coming from his or her rooms.

Thor stayed where he was for about two days until he got up suddenly, opened the fridge, and made coffee. After which he slammed the coffee cup on the ground and got another one. Hazel lazily made the broken pieces float up and fall into the garbage can. Percy didn't know that coffee cup shards were considered valuable, but you learn something new every day, right?

And that was how the days commenced for about another week. Every day Percy managed to convince himself that he would call camp the next day, the next day, until finally he laid awake in his bed on the fifteenth day after the snap and thought, you_ know what, I really _should_ call camp. _

But as always, that didn't happen.

The Avengers decided to look at charts and graphs to see exactly how many people in the world were actually dead. The results were worse than they'd thought.

Not only were half the people in the world gone, but half the people in the world meant half the pilots, half the car drivers, and half the boat drivers.

Planes crashed, killing more people than ever. Boats ran into walls, doing the same. Car crashes happened at a record count all over the world, affectively turning planet Earth into Ground Zero.

There were currently seven point five billion people in the world. At least, there was before Thanos. Now world leaders reported three point two billion people, which was less than half that.

As a result…. Well, Percy wasn't good at this mathematical stuff, but suffices to say, things were bad.

Monotonous routine every day for most of them. Wake up, score the fridge for sustenance (no one had gone shopping in two weeks, so food resources were scarce), and make sure Thor wasn't dead.

Then they drew lots to who would wake up Bruce for the day and try not to release the Hulk. It used to be a game, but with Bruce and the Hulk's recent problems, it didn't matter very much.

Then most of them either watched the news or stared at the ceiling and/or wall, eat lunch with themselves, stare at the ceiling and/or wall until dinner, go to bed, repeat.

Day twenty one brought something new.

Fury's pager which had been found on the streets of New York by a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Eric Koenig who had given it to them had stopped beeping.

They had put it in a glass case and plugged it in. They studied the symbol on it but no one could figure out what it was. Bruce managed to bypass the battery and now it was just sitting there, no one knowing exactly what to do with it.

Hazel, who was reading a book at the time in that room, called everyone up. "Fury's pager is dead."

"It's what now?"

"It's dead." She repeated. "I understand that's what you modern people call it when one of your devices stop working, though technically they're not sentient beings—although they may as well be from what you people treat them like—"

"Okay, okay, Hazel, we get it." Percy said wearily. She'd been snappier lately since the Snap, which was totally understandable, but still totally unlike her.

"What happened?" Steve asked.

"We don't know." Bruce said. "It was doing whatever it's been doing when it just stopped."

"Get it up and running." Steve said. "It was important to Fury, and I wanna know who or what that pager's connected to."

Percy froze and turned around. Standing there was a woman, probably in her mid-twenties, with shoulder length blond hair and a fierce gaze.

"Where's Fury?" She said.

Hazel turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin. A gold bar made the floor crack and zoomed towards her head. "Hazel wait—"

But that didn't do anything. The woman merely shot it out of the air with a blast from her fists and said again, "Where's Fury?"

Percy drew his sword. "Look, before you start asking questions, can you explain who you are, how you got here, and if you're gonna try and kill us."

"I agree." Steve said. The Avengers circled her.

"Look, I don't want to hurt any of you." The woman said calmly. "My name is Carol Danvers, I was an Air Force pilot in the eighties, and got my powers from an energy core made from the Tesseract exploding and I absorbed its powers. The Kree abducted me and made me believe they were good. Long story short, I came to Earth, met Fury, and helped some Skrulls who I thought were the bad guys but actually they were good and the Kree were bad. Good enough for you? Good. Now, where's Fury?"

There was silence, the Avengers obviously trying to wrap their heads around what she'd just said.

"Who, what, when, where, and why?" Percy said finally.

"Excuse me?"

"Fury's dead." Natasha stated blandly. Carol stared at her. "What?"

"Are you hard of hearing?" Natasha snapped, the death obviously still needling her. "Fury's dead. And I don't know about you guys, but I kinda want a better explanation than that, like where you've been all these years if you're from Earth?"

Carol snapped back, and a fight almost started before any of them even really knew who the other was.

Finally they made peace and managed to explain their story. Carol, it seemed, didn't even know that the Snap had happened until recently, when she visited planet A-3496 and they told her about some huge guy with an equally huge chin who had snapped half of life.

Then she noticed her pager was beeping and made her way towards Earth, but—"Since I was a couple of galaxies away, it took me a while, especially with food stops."

"A couple of galaxies—"Hazel said in a faint voice, but dropped it.

"So, you can breathe in Space, right?" Steve asked.

"Obviously."

"I don't suppose you could rescue our friend, who is also lost in Space?"

"That sounds like a good name for a Netflix show." Percy commented. Everyone looked at him. "What?"

"Yeah, I probably could." Carol admitted, obviously trying to ignore Percy, though a smile tugged at her otherwise dead serious face. "If I had the exact coordinates to where their ship was, and exactly what kind of ship it was so that I would know if it could handle travelling lightspeed alongside me. You don't, don't you?" Carol said, looking at all of their faces. "That's too bad. I really would try if I could, guys."

"I'm sure you would." Steve said. "I suppose I shouldn't have let myself hope. How long will you be staying?"

"As long as you need me." She replied. "Although that might not be too long. The things that are happening here are happening everywhere else."

At that moment, Pepper Potts rushed in, her face white, holding one of Tony's broken Iron Man heads. "I just got a transmission from him."

"You did?" Half the room shouted at once.

"Yes, and—"Pepper seemed to notice Carol for the first time. "Who is she?"

"Uh, human with powers who can travel the galaxy and could help us find Tony if she had the coordinates to Tony's ship which could be transmitted from a—"

"Recording sent by them!" Pepper finished Bruce's hurried explanation. "Well, I should probably play it then."

She pressed a button on the side of the helmet and a hologram appeared, showing an exhausted Tony Stark, lying against some sort of wall, probably on a space ship.

"This thing on? Hey Miss Potts, Pep. If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tear-jerker. I don't know if you're ever gonna see this. I don't even know if you're still…" Tony trailed off, the possibility too horrible for him to contemplate.

"Gosh, I hope so. Today is day twenty-one, uh, twenty-two. You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into the deep void of space, I'd say I'm feeling a little bit better today. The infection's run its course, thanks to the blue meanie back there. You'd love her. Very practical. Only a tiny bit sadistic. "

Natasha grinned.

"Jason and Frank—"Hazel gasped.

"Well, they're fine. Absolutely no help during repairs, but Jason's trying to circulate the air a bit using his freaky powers. He's just trying to distract himself. We all are." Percy noticed that there was no mention of Piper and felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

"Anyway, some fuel cells were cracked during battle, but we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge to buy ourselves about forty-eight hours of playtime. But it's now dead in the water. We're a thousand light years from the nearest seven eleven. Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning. That'll be it."

"And Pep, I know that I said no more surprises but…" Tony's voice got choked up and harder to understand. "Well, I gotta say I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like… well, you know what it looks like. Don't feel bad about this. I mean actually if you if you grovel for a couple of weeks and…" He put his face in legs.

"And then move on with enormous guilt, well… I should probably lie down, rest my eyes. Please know that… when I drift off, it'll be like every night, I'm fine, totally fine. I'll dream about you. It's always you."

The recording turned off. Hazel turned to Percy, smiling but with tears in her eyes.

"We've got to find him." Rhody said quietly.

"Duh." Percy started pacing around the room. "Bruce, can you track the signal and try to find the coordinates?"

"I guess." Bruce said uncertainty. "I mean, I could try."

"Carol, you know the most about space stuff in this room. You help him." Carol didn't look like she was used to being bossed around, but she did it. Percy guessed she could tell from something in his face that he wasn't about to have his orders disobeyed.

It took three hours and everyone was bored out of their minds and stressed when Bruce yelled triumphantly, "Got it!"

Carol smiled. "He actually didn't need a whole lot of help. I just showed him how coordinates worked with 'space stuff' and he was good. I'll be back tonight, as long as there isn't any trouble."

"Yeah." Percy muttered. "And that never happens."

* * *

**A/N alrighy everybody, that was chapter one! Suggestions? Support? Criticism? I honestly don't care as long as you review. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU! I will leave a shout out to you if you review at the end of next chapter, even if you're a guest.**

**So…. Bye! Don't spoil the Endgame! (Even though I just did). Wanna hear who dies? Its-**


	2. No More Surprises

**Chapter 2: No More Surprises**

**Jason**

Jason didn't think that the lack of oxygen would kill him. No. Or the depleted food and water supply. Nope. What would actually kill him was how boring it was in that stupid ship.

Twenty-one days.

Twenty-one days of doing absolutely _nothing._

Jason wouldn't be able to stand it much longer. He was doing nothing, and Piper was… Piper was dead.

Or maybe what would actually kill him was the gut-wrenching, heart-stopping guilt and pain that he was experiencing. He couldn't believe that Piper was dead. It seemed impossible. Jason was the one who was supposed to die, or disintegrated, or whatever you wanted to call it.

But it had happened to Piper. She'd been chosen out of the universal dust game show, which no one had enjoyed very much.

Those past couple of weeks, Jason had felt useless. He was no good with tools and mechanics, and neither was Frank. The best that the two of them could do was watch and try not to get in the way.

Tony was definitely not in the mood for giving a lesson right now, and Jason couldn't say that he blamed him. As for that Nebula girl, well, Jason had just discovered that she had feelings other than rage. He had to say, it made a nice change.

Her cold attitude kind of diminished the whole "teamwork" vibe. So far, Tony was the only one who was making progress with her. Jason had always felt that you should establish a relationship with the people you were working with, but Nebula was almost as hard as Nico di Angelo to hang out with.

Jason knew that if—and probably when, but he didn't like to think that way, being a naturally optimistic person—oxygen ran out, he and Frank would probably last longer than the rest, being actually superhuman rather than just building a suit. Jason really didn't want to watch a friend die in front of him again.

Nebula would last longer than all of them combined, being basically a cyborg. Jason sort of wondered the physics of replacing part of a sentient being's brain while keeping the being in question conscious. How would they not die? But that was a question for another time.

Jason had scoured his brain for all possible versions of escaping, anything that would guarantee them even a slim chance of living longer than the end of the line that was looming nearer and nearer every minute that passed.

But he had come up with nothing. Nada, zip, zero. Frank had said the same, and even with Tony's genius status had reluctantly admitted that he had nothing.

So they had to make the best of their forty-eight hours of life left to them, despite having half their friends dead and floating in the dark vacuum hole of space.

Frank was turning into random animals to amuse himself, while Jason was creating small bolts of electricity and zapping the engine, though Tony had long since told him that that wouldn't do any good.

He also was experimenting with how far he could go with solidifying air and creating pockets. He'd never really tried that before. He'd have to show Piper how he could make a rope ladder now…

There it was again. That sickening feeling that came with realizing yet again that your girlfriend was dead and you were doomed to die in less than three days. Actually, that sickening feeling was just if you remembered that anyone you knew was dead.

He sometimes also circulated the air inside the ship to help it not get stale, but honestly, that wouldn't do much now. He could literally feel the air slowly running out, turning into carbon dioxide. That wasn't the most comfortable feeling.

It was sort of a surreal experience, knowing that you were going to die and not being able to do anything about it. It wasn't suicide, exactly. It was somehow worse than suicide, if that was possible.

That was a dark thought. He decided to go and see what Tony was doing. The last he heard was that Tony was teaching Nebula how to play paper football.

He walked into the main room where eighties music was playing (Dear Mr. Fantasy, in case you were wondering) and Tony was flicking a paper towards Nebula's finger goal.

Nebula reflexively caught it, growling.

"You don't need to do that." Tony replied patiently, tired eyes brightening slightly at Nebula's unnecessary violence. "Because you're just holding position. Oh, hey Jason. Want to join?"

"I'll play the victor." Jason commented, preferring to watch the show. Nebula furrowed her eyebrows. "It will be me."

"Maybe." Tony replied casually. Nebula glared at him and flicked it towards him. It missed his finger goal entirely.

"That was close." Tony said. Nebula stared at him, trying to tell if he was being serious or not.

Tony flicked his towards her and it made a goal. "That's a goal. We're now one-a-piece."

"I would like to try again." Nebula said.

"We're tied up. Feel the tension? It's fun." Tony flicked it towards her, also totally missing the goal. "That was terrible. And now you have a chance to win."

She flicked it towards him and it made the goal. "And you won."

She sat up, looking very surprised. "Congratulations." Tony said, grinning at the look of excitement on Nebula's face.

He held out his hand to shake. "Fair game. Good sport." She shook it suspiciously. "You had fun?" He asked brightly.

She sat back down in her chair. "It was fun." She said grudgingly after a pause.

Tony got up and gestured towards his chair. "All yours, Jason."

"All right." Jason sat down and Nebula sat forward eagerly. Tony walked towards the pilot's cockpit, suddenly looking like an old man. He let his eyes linger at Tony for a second, before turning back to Nebula who was holding the paper impatiently.

"Right, sorry."

"It is alright." Nebula said stiffly. "He is failing." She said in an undertone.

Jason was surprised that she had noticed. "We all are." She looked at him. "I would like you to know," She began, looking like she was trying to find the words. "I will be, ah, sorry for your death." Jason was so surprised that he couldn't find words. "Um…"

"I am not the monster Thanos made me to be." Nebula said, looking like she was convincing herself as well as Jason. "Neither was Gamora." She added softly. "I always wanted to be more like Gamora. I suppose this is one way to start."

"Um… thanks. When you, uh, you know, I'll be sorry too."

"Thank you." She looked like she was unused to saying those words.

"Do you want me to teach you the demigod version of this game?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Jason tried to remember the rules that Leo had taught him when he'd played with him. "Okay. Do you want to be the basilisk or the hydra?"

She considered it. "Basilisk."

"I'll be the hydra. Now, you can poison the paper, so if you make a goal I can only use one finger to flick it. I'm the hydra, so I can add another finger if I make a goal…"

* * *

After an extremely momentous game of paper football, with Nebula ending up as the victor, they both made their way to the cockpit to check on Tony. He had started having nightmares lately.

When they reached him, he looked like he was sleeping peacefully, the worry lines on his forehead gone.

Jason left for a minute to grab the key that he would use to pilot the ship while Tony was asleep (being pilot actually meant keeping watch and activating the guns in case an enemy ship arrived, though they all knew that they had three shots and then there was nothing left).

Jason glanced through the cockpit window and saw Nebula laying a blanket almost tenderly on Tony and then leaving out the opposite door.

Jason almost fell asleep himself until a bright light jerked him out of his stupor. It was so bright that he had to shield his eyes. Tony sat up and squinted his.

When the light faded he saw the strangest sight he had ever seen: a woman with blond hair wearing a red, yellow, and blue suit. She looked human, but Jason had never heard of someone on Earth who could fly in space.

She smiled at them and showed them a paper with a hastily scrawled picture: An "A" with an arrow as well as a trident under it. The Avengers' logo and Percy's signature.

Jason felt the tension leave his body and gestured towards the hatch that he was about to open. She nodded and flew around the ship.

She walked in and Nebula charged towards her, swords raised, along with Frank, who Jason could tell was about to shapeshift. "Nebula, Frank, it's okay, she's a friend!" Jason rushed to stop them, and Tony walked in his wake, a touch more suspicious.

"How can you be sure?" Nebula asked, lowering her swords slightly but not sheathing them. Frank looked at Jason questionably.

The woman raised her paper again. "This was given to me from Steve Rogers and Percy Jackson as a token for your trust." She handed it to Tony who eyed it.

"That's Percy's signature." Jason said. "I wouldn't have let her in if I wasn't sure that it was his."

"He's right." Frank said, also taking it and examining it. "It's Percy's."

"I've been told to take you four back to Earth. I'm Carol Danvers."

"Well, Carol Danvers," Tony said, trying for a smile. "Why are you waiting?"

Nebula still looked suspicious but sheathed her swords, trying not to look relieved. Tony looked like a thousand pounds of weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Jason exhaled through his nose. _They were saved._

* * *

**A/N Yay! As you can see, a lot of this was original writing, so not very many spoilers. Just to tell you what the update schedule is: between every other day and two weeks. Today it was in five days, and that'll probably be the average.**

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guardianx15 (K so if I had the Infinity Stones kill the gods it would kinda mess up stuff, plus I don't feel like it, so that was my reasoning. Sorry!)  
Game-Watch (Some of the better ones i.e. Athena, Poseidon, Hestia, will notice but most of them won't, though the ones that did notice will tell them)  
Guest (You'll just have to see what happens!)**


	3. We Lost

**ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: "We Lost"**

**Percy**

It had been one day and two hours since Carol Danvers had shot off to space (not that Percy was keeping track) and Percy was starting to get impatient.

Wasn't she supposed to be, like, super powerful? As in, fly at the speed of light powerful? So then why couldn't she get their friends home? It wasn't like there was a Chick Fil A to stop at.

He was lying in his bed in his room, absently folding and unfolding a piece of paper. Definitely not a letter or anything. Of course it wasn't from Camp Half-Blood. Why would anyone think that?

It was a letter from Camp Half-Blood.

Chiron had been trying to Iris-Message him for two weeks now, but every time a rainbow screen appeared in front of him, Percy cut it out with his hand. The attempts had been getting increasingly frequent, and Clarisse had sent a letter.

_Prissy,_

_GET YOUR FREAKING BUTT OVER HERE RIGHT NOW! We have a right to know what's going on and you're the only person who knows ANYTHING! Just because you're part of the 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' now or whatever, doesn't mean that you can just blow us off like you're so much better than us._

_You know, I would've thought that Annabeth would've have been more responsible but—_

Percy hadn't read any more than that. He didn't need any more reminders that Annabeth wasn't… that she wasn't there anymore.

He found that he did best by ignoring everything and pretending nothing had happened. It wasn't the best, but hey, it was better than crying himself to sleep every night (not that he'd been doing that, either).

Any time that anyone brought up that subject he made an excuse to leave the room. That was what had happened earlier that day, and why Percy was still in his room. He wouldn't be able to stand Hazel's concerned eyes following him.

Sometimes he would catch himself thinking about her and find that his entire bedspread was wet, which was weird, because he definitely didn't remember starting to cry (not that he would ever do such a thing).

Percy missed her.

He missed her grey eyes, that seemed to analyze everything and everyone, but could be kind when needed.

He missed her scary-smart personality, which could solve every problem. He missed her funny side too, a rare part that she showed to only the people that she trusted.

He even missed her beating the crap out of him with words when he was late for their date.

But he mostly just missed _her. _Her warmness, her way of always being there when he needed her. What was he supposed to do now? Find a new girlfriend? Not an option. He wouldn't do something like that. Especially if there was even a small chance of bringing her back.

It wasn't an actual death. It was a Thanos-oriented death. She was dust, not a spirit. That had to count for something.

Percy remembered the old story of Orpheus trying to bring Eurydice back from the dead, resulting in both of them dying. He pushed the memory away, even though that story always gave him warm and fuzzy feelings. (Obviously, that was sarcasm.)

Finally Percy couldn't stand sitting there, alone except for his depressing thoughts. He stood up and was about to open his bedroom door when he froze and glanced over at his water cup. It was rattling, like there was an earthquake.

He walked out the door and pulled out steel Riptide, keeping Celestial Bronze Riptide in his pocket.

The rest of the Avengers were running out the door too. They gathered out at the lawn and saw a big spaceship being carried by a grinning Carol Danvers.

It landed and the entry hatch opened, revealing Tony Stark and some purple girl supporting him. Tony stumbled down the landing ramp and Steve and Percy ran over to him, Hazel hovering back, unsure what to expect.

Tony gripped Steve's arm as Steve held him up. "I couldn't stop him." He gasped.

"Neither could I."

Tony froze, like he'd just had a painful memory. "I lost the kid." He mumbled, staring at the ground. Steve sighed, looking at him with sympathy. "Tony, we lost." He said it simply. _We lost._

"Is, um…." Tony struggled to ask something when Pepper came running towards him, tears in her eyes.

"Tony!" They embraced. Percy stepped back to give them some space. "It's okay." Tony closed his eyes. "It's okay."

Hazel looked terrified until Jason and Frank walked out, Jason supporting Frank, who seemed to be sporting a broken leg.

Hazel let out a sort of mix between a sob and a scream and ran towards him, Jason letting go of Frank's arm to let Hazel and Frank be together.

Jason walked carefully down the ramp, but tripped as he walked off and was caught by Percy.

"Thanks." He murmured. "It's nothing."

The two looked at each other. "Jason, I—"

Percy's voice cracked.

"I know." Jason said quietly. They seemed to communicate silently what had happened and who the each had lost. Percy saw that Jason had Katoptris on his belt loop.

Percy clapped him on the back and walked back into the Compound.

* * *

"It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth." Natasha started briefing the people who had been in Space as Tony received blood for his wounds.

"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are working are trying to take a census. It looks like Thanos did… exactly what he said he was gonna do. He wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."

Jason looked over at the video screens that were showing all the missing. Leo's face flashed on the screen and he looked like he'd been punched in the stomach. No one had gotten up the guts to tell him yet.

"Where is he now?" Tony asked.

"We don't know." Steve replied.

"He just opened a portal and walked through." Rhody said.

Percy glanced over to see if Thor was doing anything other than looking depressed at the moment. Tony seemed to notice that as well.

"What's wrong with him?" He wondered.

"He thinks he failed." Rocket Raccoon answered from the ground. Tony jumped. "Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that going on right now, ain't there?"

"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-a-Bear." Tony said.

"Maybe I am." Rocket replied mysteriously.

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans and satellites, we got nothing." Natasha told him.

"And you didn't get anything from your Greek God radar stuff?" Tony asked Percy. He stiffened and shook his head. "I haven't been in contact with anyone since Thanos."

Tony seemed to sense this was a sore subject and didn't inquire further.

"Tony, you fought him." Steve said. Tony looked like that was a sore subject for him too. He looked at Steve, anger in his face.

"Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There wasn't a fight."

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve persisted. Tony snorted.

"I saw this coming a few years back. Had a vision. Didn't want to believe it. Thought I was dreaming." Percy winced as he remembered the vision that Wanda had shown him years ago. It still stung. With a pang, he remembered Annabeth dying in it. Well, that part came true.

No, she wasn't dead. Stop thinking like that! Percy gave himself a mental slap in the face and that did the trick.

Cap looked at Tony with barely controlled impatience. "Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus—"

"And I _needed_ you." Tony cut him off, looking glaring at him. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need." Steve looked like he'd been actually slapped.

Percy had never been told exactly what had happened in Siberia those years ago between Tony, Steve, and Bucky. All he knew that it was something big. It had to be, for Tony to be looking at Steve with this much loathing.

Tony stood up, brushing things off the table, hands shaking. His coffee cup landed with a clang. "I need a shave." He muttered. Then he looked back up at Steve.

"And I believe I remember telling _you,_ Cap," He strode towards him. Rhodey and Jason started towards Tony, trying to get him to stop.

"Tony, Tony, Tony, stop!" Rhodey said. "Tony, just slow down and think." Jason tried to calm him down. Tony just stepped to the side.

"I remember telling you that what we needed was a suit of armor around the world!" His voice started rising. "Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious _freedoms _or not, _that's _what we needed!"

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve said calmly.

"I said, 'We'll lose' you said, 'We'll do that together too.' Well guess what Cap? We lost. You weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the _Av_engers, not the _Pre_vengers, right?

Rhodey stepped in front of him. "Okay, you made your point. Just sit down, all right?"

Tony pushed Rhodey away. "Nope. Here's my point."

"Sit down!"

Tony turned to Carol. "She's great, by the way. We need you. You're new blood."

"Tony!"

"Bunch of tired old mills," Tony continued relentlessly. "I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no plans, and no options. Zero, zip, nada. And no trust, you _liar." _

Steve just looked at Tony. Finally he ripped his Arc Reactor out of his chest and handed it to Steve. This time Percy rushed over. "Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide."

Tony fell to the ground and everyone gathered around him. Tony tried to push them away. "I'm fine. I'm—"

He collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna be out all day." Rhodey said in an undertone to the rest. Tony was lying on a hospital bed with Pepper by his side.

"You guys take care of him," Carol said, standing up. "And I'll bring a Bezurian Elixir when I get back."

"Where are you going?" Rhodey asked.

"To kill Thanos." Carol replied, as if it should be obvious. Percy sighed. In some ways, Carol reminded him a little bit of Thalia. Headstrong, powerful, and maybe a little bit _too_ sure of her abilities.

Carol started to walk off and Natasha stepped in front of her. "You know, we usually work as a team around here and between you and I, we're also a little fragile. We realize this is more your territory, but this is our fight too."

"Do you even know where he is?" Frank asked disbelievingly, sitting on the couch with Hazel. He hadn't talked much that day and everyone started in surprise.

"I know people who might." Carol looked anxious to leave.

"Don't bother." The girl who looked like a cyborg—Nebula, Percy reminded himself—spoke up from her brooding spot in the corner.

She looked up. "I can tell you where Thanos is." Everyone went quiet to listen.

"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. While he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled I wanted to please him. I'd ask, 'Where would we go when his plan was complete?' His answer was always the same."

She stood up. "To the Garden." She said in such in ominous voice it was almost comical.

"The _Garden._" Jason raised his eyebrows.

"That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan." Rhodey muttered.

"So where is he then?" Steve asked in his let's-get-moving Captain voice. Rocket stood up from his chair.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became Ground Zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic measures. No one's ever seen anything like it… until two days ago." A hologram popped up that showed a planet with a visible shock wave moving across it.

"On this planet. Thanos is there." Nebula stated.

"Then why didn't we hear about this two days ago?" Hazel wondered.

"Carol updated our technology." Bruce said. "Between her and Rocket, we had a huge breakthrough."

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't call myself a genius, but I am." Rocket said from the floor, a grin on his face. Jason rolled his eyes.

"He used the stones again." Natasha realized.

"Hey, we'd be going in shorthanded, you know that, right?" Bruce asked.

"Oh, do I ever." Percy murmured.

"Yeah, we know that. He killed all our friends." Jason pointed out.

"Look, he's still got the stones, so…" Rhodey said.

"So let's get them, and use them to bring everyone back." Carol said, again like she was stating the obvious. Percy felt a ripple of annoyance and being spoken to like he was three years old. Thalia had the tendency to do that too. He'd have to set them up to meet sometime.

"Just like that?" Rhodey asked.

"Yeah. Just like that." Steve said, and looked at Percy. He nodded.

"Even if there's a small chance we can undo this… I mean, we owe this to everyone who's not in this room, to try." Natasha said, glancing up at the screens that were flashing with the photos of the missing. They were like dead bodies; it was hard not to look at them.

"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asked, trying to bring the conversation back to an understandable level.

"Because before you didn't have me." Carol announced. Everyone got quiet, looking at her with different expressions of annoyance.

"Hey, new girl." Rhodey began, sounding like he was just about done with her. "Everyone in here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind me asking, where the heck have you been all this time?"

"There are a lot of planets in the universe," Carol said, turning to him and saying everything slowly. "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

Thor, who was eating a snack this entire time, suddenly got up and walked over to Carol. He held out his hand and Stormbreaker flew into it, missing Carol by inches.

She didn't even flinch. Instead she actually started grinning at the God of Thunder. "I like this one." Thor announced to the room at large.

Steve was still staring at the hologram where the Mad Titan was located.

"Let's go get this son of a—"

* * *

**PERCY JACKSON: ENDGAME**

**A/N Chapter three is complete. You're welcome. Please please please continue to review! They're amazing! Just say something, ANYTHING! Thanks to those who did:**

**The Sorrowful Deity  
Br0kenTh0rn (That's a good idea, I will probably use it!)  
Game-Watch  
HISHB (Sorry, only one chapter at a time! Sorry)  
DreamCatcher06 (Thanks for your review! Please continue!)  
dzeebest (That's right we are)  
DaughterofAthena223 (Yes, ma'am!)  
DarkShadowDragon (Thanks!)  
theworstisgoingtohappen (Thanks again!)  
TheRealShenron (I don't think I would have the strength to kill any of them)  
Guest (that's what I was planning on! I've got big plans for that battle :)  
HISB (You'll just have to stay and find out! Hehe)  
Jemma Cross (I honestly have no idea, but I don't think so. Please continue reviewing!)  
Guest (Good suggestion, but would there be any Infinity Stones in that timeline? Don't really know how that would work. Thanks though!)**


	4. I am Inevitable

**ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. (Like, serious, actual spoilers this time.)**

* * *

**Chapter 4: "I am Inevitable"**

**Jason**

Jason strapped himself into the Guardian's ship, trying not to have PTSD about this. After all, the last time he'd been in here, he'd been dying.

Leo was dead.

He'd already gone through that once. Now he had to do it again. Piper _and _Leo. Now he only had Percy, Frank, and Hazel. To tell the truth, he'd never been good friends with Percy in the first place, and now the Accords had happened, it was mostly just a mutual agreement not to start attacking each other.

Jason looked around for Hazel and Frank before remembering that they hadn't come. They'd convinced them that someone had to watch the Compound while they were gone.

Rocket's voice turned his attention back to the others.

"Okay, who here hasn't been to Space?"

Percy, Natasha, Steve, and Rhodey raised their hands. Jason grinned at finally having done something Percy hadn't.

"Terrans." Rocket muttered. "You better not throw up on my ship." He said in his normal voice. "Approaching jump in three… two… one…"

The ship plunged into a wormhole, pushing everyone back in their seats. Jason saw Steve holding on to the arm rests for dear life.

The ship slowed down, and it hovered in front of a planet that they'd seen in the hologram. Carol, in her red, blue, and yellow suit, flew in front of the ship and said, "I'll head down for ground recon."

Percy and Jason's swords rang against the others as they prepared for the impending confrontation. Sweat was pouring down Jason's face and Percy was steadily pressing him towards the wall.

Jason used the winds to push himself up in the air and he tried an upward attack. Percy blocked it, but got pushed further down on the ground. Just was Jason thought he had one, Percy rolled away and came up standing, looking amused.

"Not bad, Grace."

"Oh, come on." Jason grumbled. "I'm the best swordsman in Camp Jupiter."

"I'm the best swordsman in a hundred years if you don't count Luke." Percy countered. Jason rolled his eyes but grinned.

After another round of fighting—which Percy also won—Carol flew back over to the ship, blond hair resting on her shoulders. "No satellites, no ships, no ground defenses of any kind. It's just him."

"Then that's enough." Nebula said, excitement glittering in her eyes.

They went in stealthily. They didn't want to give Thanos any time to gather his senses. Carol would fly in first, then Jason, Bruce from the ground, Thor would cut off his arm, Rhodey and Rocket would point their guns, and Percy would walk in with Steve and Natasha. He would keep his sword as close to Thanos' neck as humanly possible without killing him.

The plan actually worked surprisingly well.

Carol plunged Thanos' little hut, knocked him down, and got him in a headlock. Jason was right behind her and stood guard next to her in case she needed any help with keeping Thanos under control, though he seriously doubted it.

Bruce in the Hulk Buster armor burst out of the ground and held Thanos' arm that had the gauntlet on it. But as Jason looked closer at it, he realized that something was wrong…

But before he could tell this to the others, Thor flew in and cut off Thanos' gauntleted arm, causing him to moan in pain.

Rhodey and Rocket pointed their guns at Thanos' head, while Steve, Natasha, and Percy walked in through the multiple wholes that had been created in the house.

Percy drew his sword as fast as thought when he saw Thanos and pointed it so close to his neck that Jason though he had forgotten what the plan was.

Jason could tell that Percy was feeling a savage pleasure at inflicting just some of the pain he had given to himself and everyone on Earth.

"Oh, no." Rocket kicked over the gauntlet, showing that the stones were gone. Everyone made noises of shock and disbelief. Percy glared at Thanos as if he could make the stones appear from giving dirty looks, because if looks could kill…

"Where are they?" Natasha growled. Carol tightened her hold on Thanos. "Answer the question."

"Yeah, or I'm gonna put this sword somewhere that's not gonna be real comfortable for you." Percy informed Thanos.

"The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose beyond temptation." Thanos choked out in that voice that they all hated.

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce said, as if they didn't know. "You should be grateful." Thanos smiled before wincing at the tightened hold on his neck.

"Where are the stones?" Steve asked in his cold Captain America voice. "Gone. Reduced to atoms." Thanos replied.

"You used them two days ago!" Bruce shouted.

"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It… nearly killed me. But the work is done. It will always be. I am inevitable."

Jason nearly dropped his sword. Percy's face looked white and shocked.

"We… we have to tear this place apart, he has to be lying." Rhodey protested.

"My father is many things." Nebula walked over to Thanos to look at him closely. "A liar is not one of them." Thanos smiled.

"Ah, thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly." Percy raised his sword, his face filled with rage and grief, but someone else got there first.

Stormbreaker sliced through the air and cut Thanos' head off. It rolled over on the floor. Jason didn't have to be a child of Hades to know that Thanos was dead.

"What did you do?" Rocket asked in disbelief.

"I went for the head." Thor's voice cracked. Percy sank to the ground, staring at Thanos' body.

"That was our last hope." Natasha whispered. Thor walked out of the entrance to the cage, while the rest of the Avengers stared at each other.

* * *

**Long Island, New York**

A figure walked over the border. Even those who knew him probably wouldn't recognize him. A horn blew, signaling the arrival of a new demigod… or old one.

Camp Half-Blood, usually bustling with teenagers going about their business, was now desolate and silent. Percy Jackson made his way towards the Big House, opening the door and closing it behind him.

The meeting room in the Big House was—not exactly full of campers—but had Clarisse, Chiron, Malcolm, Lou Ellen, Will Solace, Nyssa, and Clovis, who looked wide awake.

They were all arguing, but everyone stopped when Percy walked in. They all looked at him.

Malcolm was the first to unfreeze. "Percy! You're back! Where's… where's Annabeth?" He looked at Percy's face, grey eyes studying him. "Oh, no. You don't mean…"

"I'm here." Percy said, his voice hoarse. "Did you need me to do anything in particular, or just wanted me to hang out?"

"We need to know what's going on." Malcolm said. "All of us."

"'Kay. Thanos. This dude who's purple from outer space has these things called the Infinity Stones that are really powerful. He got all six and snapped his fingers, and half the life in the universe was obliterated." Percy finished.

"That's not much of an explanati—"Lou Ellen began angrily, but Nyssa put a hand on her arm. "Percy, where's Leo?" She asked quietly.

Percy gestured hopelessly. "We lost Leo, Ann-Annabeth, Piper, and Zeus knows who else. Doubt even Zeus knows. Was there anything else?"

Clarisse rose from her chair, face a mix of grief and rage. "We need you to get out."

Dead silence. "What?" Percy asked, thunderstruck.

"You abandoned us, Percy." Clarisse glared at him. "You went with your precious _Avengers _and left us alone to fend for ourselves, with no idea what was going on. The monsters all attacked us in a combined effort and just when we defeated them everyone… everyone started turning to dust."

"You can't just come back and expect everything to be cool. Y_ou are banished from Camp Half-Blood." _

"Clarisse—"Chiron tried to stop her, but Clarisse was on a roll, her face beet red from anger.

"Shut up, horse, I'm not done. I'm done with you, Prissy. You joined the Avengers, and then became an _outlaw, _almost severing our trust with Camp Jupiter. Then you left us to take care of this Thanos while we're fighting all these monsters and then you _failed to stop him,_ might I add."

"But—"

"You're supposedly our most powerful demigod, and you failed to stop him, leaving _us _to deal with the gods' problems, who are severely debilitated, by the way. Half of their offspring is gone, Percy, our friends and family, and now there's monsters everywhere and we have half the demigods to take care of them."

"What are we supposed to do? Just wait around for you to come back and explain everything? I don't think so. You've proved yourself unreliable and don't have any use to us. _Get—out."_

Clarisse paused to take a breath, looking triumphantly and Percy's face. He looked at her, and his eyes looked broken. However, he opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it.

It was like shutters closed behind his green eyes, and he looked at Clarisse coldly. "Fine." He said coolly, his calm rage more terrifying somehow than Clarisse's yelling.

"Percy—"Chiron started.

"I'll leave, if that's what you want me to do." He said, staring hard at Clarisse. "You guys can take care of it here. I'll leave." He repeated. He turned towards the door and started to leave but the door banged open before he could grab it.

Rachel Dare, red hair flying, burst into the room. Everyone jumped. "Great... Prophecy... happening... can't... stop..." She fell backwards, her eyes turning green as she channeled the spirit of the oracle.

Percy caught her in surprise, but she sat up again, eyes glowing green. When she spoke, it sounded like three Rachels were talking at once. A feeling of dread permeated the room.

_Through times old and new_

_A team must find their way to_

_Face either their death or salvation_

_And a reincarnation_

_Will await them if they can find their way through._

Rachel gasped and sat up, but her eyes were still serpent green. The room was deadly quiet.

"That... that was a limerick." Lou Ellen said in shock. "We're doomed." Will said.

"It's not done!" Chiron said suddenly, and sure enough, Rachel started speaking again.

_The disgraced must come together_

_their failure__ will become their tether_

_destruction following a betrayal from one of their own_

_old enemies they must face_

_A choice will end one of their days_

_And the universe will be preserved or razed_

Rachel sat up, the green light gone. She was normal again... or as normal as Rachel Elizabeth Dare could be.

Percy's hands shook. She turned around and seemed to register that he was there. "Oh... hi." She turned to everyone else. "That was a Great Prophecy." Like they all didn't know already.

She saw Will's face. "Oh, no. It wasn't..."

"Yeah. It was." He confirmed.

"A limerick? I'm so sorry."

The prophecy sounded eerily like the first one. That did not bode well.

Percy just stared at her, then walked out the door of the Big House. Nyssa, Lou Ellen, Clovis, Malcolm, Will, and Chiron rushed to the window to watch the solitary figure walk out of the borders of Camp Half-Blood, drawing Riptide as he went.

"What did you do?" Chiron stared at Clarisse. Clarisse herself looked surprised at what had happened, like she'd expected Percy to fight back. But he'd just walked out, especially after a great prophecy.

The world had changed, another Great Prophecy had been spoken, and none of them would ever be the same, especially not Percy Jackson.

* * *

**A/N (original)Yay! Don't you love a good, happy chapter? I know I do. (That was sarcasm, by the way). ****WOW I GOT SO MANY REVIEWS PLEASE PLEASE CONTINUE THANK YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH! SHOUT OUT TO YOU AWESOME PEOPLE:**

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**A/N (added) I added a prophecy to this chapter just for fun. My apologies if that's confusing, also that the rhyming is horrible. I did the best I could under the circumstances. **


	5. FIVE YEARS LATER

**FIVE YEARS LATER**


	6. Some People Move On

**Chapter 6: "Some People Move On..."**

**Natasha Romanoff**

Natasha Romanoff was sitting on the desk in the Avengers Compound, holding a meeting with the various Avengers across the world. One by one, they appeared as holograms. Nebula and Rocket, Carol Danvers, James Rhodes, and Okoye.

Jason looked older and more weary, his blond hair rumpled and his arms had more scars. He had been staying at Camp Jupiter, building more temples to the gods. Apparently, now that half the demigods in the world were gone, it was more important than ever to build more temples, since the gods' powers were very low at the moment.

As Natasha had basically taken over as director of S.H.I.E.L.D., she was now in charge of checking in with all of the other leaders, and Jason had tried to explain to her as much as he could with the gods and everything, since they'd explained nothing else since that day in Clint's farmhouse.

"Yeah, we boarded that warship that Danvers pinged." Rocket continued. "It was an infectious garbage scowl." Nebula said in her usual ominous voice.

"So, thanks for the hot tip." Rocket turned to glare at Carol, who replied with a smirk. "Well, you were closer."

"Yeah. And now we smell like garbage!" Rocket said. Natasha rolled her eyes and turned to Okoye. "You get a reading on those tremors?"

"It was a mild subduction under the African continent." Okoye replied casually.

"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?" Okoye looked at her. "Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it."

"What about you, Jason?" Natasha turned to him.

He shrugged. "What do you want me to say? Nothing new. Demigods are coming at the usual wait—which is now really slow—and we've put up two new temples over the last week."

"Any new news on Percy?" Natasha asked, though she knew what the answer would be.

"Nothing." Jason replied. "We think that he's travelling the country, doing _something, _but we don't know what exactly that is yet."

Natasha sighed. Losing Percy had been one of her biggest mistakes. He had gone back to whatever camp they went to, and walked off almost immediately after. Natasha turned back to Carol.

"Carol, are we seeing you here next month?"

"Not likely." She replied. "What, are you getting another haircut?" Rocket scoffed, taking in her new tomboyish look.

Carol looked at him, irritated. "Listen, fur face. I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets."

"All right, that's a good point, that's a good point." Rocket muttered.

"So you might not see me for a long time." Carol finished.

"Alright. Well, this channel is always active. So, anything goes sideways, anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't… comes straight through me."

"Okay."

"Alright."

They all switched off their monitors. "Good luck." Carol said softly before switching off hers as well.

Natasha sat down, exhausted. It had been a long day. Then again, every day since Thanos had been a long day, so she wasn't one to talk.

She noticed that Rhodes was still there. "Where are you?" She asked him.

"Mexico." Rhodey hesitated. "The federals found a room full of bodies. Looks like a cartel gang. Never even had the chance to get their guns out."

"It's probably a rival gang." Natasha replied offhand, hoping that he wasn't going to confirm what she already suspected, deep in her bones.

"Except it's not." Natasha's heart sank.

"It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the past couple years... I mean the scene that he left…"

Natasha struggled to keep her emotions in check. Her first and best friend was now a murderer, just like her. "I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him." Rhodey finished.

Natasha took a bite of her sandwich to hide a few rebellious tears that were slipping out. She cleared her throat. "Will you find out where he's going next?"

"Nat…"

"Please." She looked at him imploringly.

"Okay." Rhodey said reluctantly, and then switched his holograph off.

Alone at last. Unfortunately, she now had no excuse to hold back her tears like she'd been doing for the past five years.

If only they could see her now. The emotionless Black Widow, crying her eyes out over a peanut butter sandwich. At least there was no one there to…

"You know, I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already."

Steve. Natasha choked back some more tears and looked over at her friend, hovering by a bookshelf. She forced a smile. "You here to do your laundry?"

"To see a friend." Steve walked over to her.

"Clearly, your friend is fine." She swallowed.

"You know, I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge." Steve remarked. "In the Hudson?" Natasha said in disbelief.

"There's fewer ships, cleaner water…"

"You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side, um…. I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich." She smiled for real now, and Steve did the same.

"Sorry. Force of habit." He sat down next to her. "You know, I keep telling people they should move on and… grow. Some do. But not us."

"If I move on, who does this?" She gestured helplessly around the Compound, trying to explain the part of her life that was now the only thing keeping her from breaking down every other day.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done." Steve said softly.

Natasha almost laughed. Didn't it always need to be done? No matter what was going on in the world, whether it was global warming or nukes or a Titan coming to earth and destroying half of all life; there were always people who used it to their advantage.

"I used to have nothing. And then I got this job… this family. And I was… I was better because of it. And even though… they're gone, I'm still trying to be better."

"I think we both need to get a life." Steve said. Natasha smirked. "You first."

A camera footage popped up, showing an ugly orange van and… was that Scott Lang?

"Um, hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, in Germany? I got really big, and you wouldn't recognize me."

Steve stood up. "Is this an old recording?"

"It's the front gate."

"Ant-Man? Ant-Man, I know you know that. Yeah, that's me. Can you buzz me in?"

* * *

***Time Skip***

* * *

**Steve Rogers**

Steve stood outside the Avengers Compound, staring at the ground. Their initial attempt at the 'time heist' had failed, and Scott really didn't want to be a baby again. It seemed cruel to get their hopes up and then to see them fall again, but it wasn't Scott's fault, who himself was devastated.

He looked up as a deafening noise in the distance shattered the silence. Ahead of the road was an Audi R8 that was rapidly driving towards the Compound. Only one person drove a car like that, and that was Tony Stark.

The car pulled over to Steve, went a bit too far, and reversed back to be right in front of him. The driver's window rolled down to see Tony leaning over the car.

"Why the long face? Let me guess, he turned into a baby." Tony guessed. Steve shrugged. "Among other things, yeah. What are you doing here?" Steve asked him, though he secretly hoped he knew.

Tony got out of the car and walked to the back. "That's an EPR paradox. Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might've wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky. Dangerous. Somebody should've cautioned you against it."

Steve didn't understand about half of what Tony had just said, but also noticed that he'd ignored Steve's initial question. "You did." Steve reminded him, though he knew that was what Tony wanted him to do.

"Oh, did I?" He opened the car's trunk. "Thank goodness I'm here, then. Regardless, I fixed it." He held up his right hand, showing some sort of technological device that Steve hadn't seen before. "A fully functioning Time-Space GPS. I just want peace." He flashed the peace sign casually. "Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it."

Steve grinned. "Me too."

"We got a shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities." Tony informed him. "Bring back everyone? I hope so, yes. Keep what I found? I have to, at all costs. And, maybe not die trying, would be nice."

"Sounds like a deal." Steve held out his hand, and Tony shook it. Tony reached into the trunk of his car to bring out something else: Steve's classic red, white, and blue shield, that he hadn't seen in years. Tony made to give it to Steve, but he hesitated.

"Tony, I don't know."

"Why? He made it for you. Plus, honestly, I have to get it out of the garage before Morgan takes in sledding."

Smiling in spite of himself, Steve fitted his arm through the loop in the back of his shield. "Thank you, Tony." He said quietly.

"Just keep that a little quiet, okay? I didn't bring one for the whole team. There is a team, right?"

"We're working on that."

* * *

"Rhodey told me that he knows where Clint's going next." Natasha sat on the couch with Steve. "What about Percy?" Steve asked.

"Jason doesn't have any news, but I could probably find him with a couple weeks."

"We don't have a couple weeks."

"I know." Natasha sighed. "Let's focus on the easier ones first. Thor?"

"Bruce is getting him."

"And of course Tony's already here…" Natasha's voice trailed off. "What about Hazel and Frank?"

Steve shrugged. "Do you know where they are?"

"Uh, yeah, they gave us their address at their wedding. Plus they've got a daughter now, but I think she's living in Camp Rome or whatever the heck it's called." Natasha smiled slightly at the thought; Hazel had sent her a couple pictures of Emily Marie Zhang.

"Anyway, I know where they are. I can grab her. Jason should be easy to find, he's at Camp Rome too." Natasha finished.

"I think its Camp Jupiter." Steve corrected her.

"Whichever. Nico's at the other camp with his boyfriend, he probably wants some revenge anyway. You can get him."

"Oh, hooray." Steve muttered. Natasha snorted. "So what about Percy?" Steve asked eventually. "He's the most powerful out of them all. We've got to get him too. "

"We'll get that eventually. Maybe one of the demigods will have better luck finding him." Natasha said.

"Well, then what are we waiting for? Let's go get them."

"Whatever you say, Cap."

* * *

**A/N My apologies for this chapter centered on the ACTUAL Avengers, but I really need it to set up next chapter. I'm also sorry for just using scenes that were just in the movie. Also, as you probably noticed, I did skip a lot of scenes from the movies because I figured you wouldn't want to just hear all the Avengers talking. **

**PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE REVIEW! Thanks to reviewers:**

**ShadowPaladin23  
HISHB (Well, I did do two chapters this time!)  
PHL360  
The Sorrowful Deity  
DarkShadowDragon16  
Game-Watch  
Guest  
theworstisgoingtohappen  
the guy that loves all gunpla  
NinjaFang1331**


	7. But Not Us

**Chapter 7: "…But Not Us"**

* * *

**Jason**

Jason coasted on the winds, readying himself to land on the pad in the Avengers Compound. He'd just gotten word that they'd figured out a way to bring everyone back. The second that he decided it wasn't a prank call, he'd put Dakota in charge and got the heck out of there.

It was no mean feat to travel from California to New York in two hours, but Jason managed. He'd just be exhausted when he got there. He landed on the platform lightly, but somehow still scaring a guy who was eating a taco.

"Oh my—"

"Hey." Jason greeted him, still having no idea who he was. "Where's Cap?" He pointed towards the Compound. Jason resisted from rolling his eyes. He _knew _Steve was in the Compound. Just _where _in the Compound was what mattered at the moment.

He sighed and started walking into the Compound just as a space ship landed on the grass. Jason recognized it as Nebula and Rocket's ship. Obviously Steve and Natasha had called all hands on deck for this.

"Hey humie! Where's Big Green?" Rocket yelled as he strode past the Taco Guy. Was it Sam? Or Scott? Jason was pretty sure it was Scott.

"Uh, kitchen, I think." Scott replied. "That's all I needed." Jason muttered to himself.

Nebula landed hard down on the Compound landing strip. Scott jumped so hard half the ingredients of his taco fell out. Nebula glanced at him and then started speaking into her communicator.

"Rhodey, careful on reentry. There's an idiot on the landing zone." Jason grinned and walked in with Nebula and Rocket.

"So, what's up with you, Sparky?" Rocket asked him. Jason groaned internally. He should never have told Rocket what Leo used to call him.

As always, there was a little pang when he thought of Leo, but he shook it off. He'd gotten better at that over the years.

"Not much." Jason replied a little too casually. "Anything new with you guys? Any new evil dudes that we need to take care of?"

"No." Nebula replied in her usual dark tone. "I already did."

They walked into the kitchen, Rhodey on their heels.

Jason was surprised to see that he was the only demigod in the room right then. "Where's—"

"We were hoping you would be able to find Percy." Natasha finished. "Any idea where he might be?"

"No." Jason replied. "He could be literally anywhere in the U.S."

"Is there anywhere important to him? Maybe somewhere where he's been to before that's important to him?"

Jason thought. Then a slow smile spread up his face. "Have you ever been to the Hoover Dam? Percy told me once that it's got a dam good snack bar."

* * *

**Natasha Romanoff**  
**New Orleans Junior High School  
10:32 AM**

Natasha Romanoff slid on one of her disguise-o-mesh face masks (Tony's words, not hers) inside a car. She was sitting in front of a New Orleans Junior High School. Not normally a place that she would hang out, but she had a reason this time.

She usually didn't wear her disguising face masks, they were highly uncomfortable. But it wasn't like you could go strolling into a Junior High School as an Avenger. Everyone had known how they had failed in Wakanda, so they were considerably less popular right then. So she was using the mask because she really didn't want to make the news at that particular moment.

She walked into the school building and stopped at the office.

"I'd like to get a volunteer badge." She told the secretary. The secretary looked at her suspiciously. "Name?"

"Natalie Rushman." Natasha replied. "I'm volunteering for one of your classes." The woman sighed and printed out a badge without arguing. She hadn't had her morning coffee and didn't really care one way or another about where the red-headed stranger went as long as she left quickly.

Natasha walked down the hallway of the school, looking around. Finally she saw one whose headboard said, Mrs. Levesque. Natasha smiled slightly. In a spurt of feminism, Hazel had kept her old last name. Maybe to honor her mother.

Natasha looked through the window and saw a twenty-four year old Hazel Levesque. She was now a history professor for a junior high school in New Orleans. Why Hazel had chosen to be a teacher as a distraction, let alone a teacher for _teenagers _escaped her, but she supposed that she would be a good history professor, considering her past.

"And who can tell me why Alaska was mostly unharmed during World War 2?"Hazel asked her class. One boy raised his hand.

"Yes, Andrew?" The boy pointed to the door, meeting Natasha's eyes briefly and then looking away. "Um, there's someone at the door for you." Hazel glanced at Natasha standing outside the doorway and met her eyes.

Natasha nodded briefly at her. "Katie, you're in charge while I go talk to her." Hazel told her students.

One girl nodded and grinned slightly. As soon as Hazel walked out of her classroom, it was complete pandemonium inside. Hazel took no notice and walked straight to Natasha.

"Natasha, what are you doing here?" Hazel asked in a low voice out in the hall.

"We've found something. A chance to bring everyone back." Hazel swallowed. "Look Nat, don't get my hopes up. The Infinity Stones were destroyed. I'm doing my best to move on, alright?"

"I know. I just need you to trust me. We'll tell you when we get to the Compound, but we need you now."

"We? Who's we?"

"Just me, Steve, Tony, Bruce, Scott, Rhodey, Rocket, Nebula, Thor, and Jason."

"Oh, is that all?"

"We need all of you. As many people as we can get."

"What about Emily?"

"You daughter?" Natasha's hard gaze softened. "I thought she was staying at your camp." Hazel raised her eyebrows.

"And let my four year old daughter go through Lupa's torture? What kind of mother do you think I am?" A junior high schooler walked by, heard part of the conversation, and walked faster towards his classroom, no doubt about to tell his friends that 'Mrs. Levesque finally snapped'.

Hazel took no notice and continued. "Most legacies go out at age eight. Emily's at daycare." Natasha honestly didn't understand half the things that Hazel had just said, but decided to roll with it.

"Well, then keep her there. It shouldn't take longer than a day… in fact, if it works, it shouldn't take any time at all." Hazel looked at her, golden eyes studying the assassin, as if gauging how crazy she looked right now.

"Just trust me, Hazel." Natasha said again. "I know it's hard. But there's a chance. I think we should take it."

"We really could bring everyone back?" Hazel asked softly.

"If it works."

Hazel looked down, and when she looked up, Natasha could see some of herf old steely gaze back in her eyes.

"Let's go get Frank."

* * *

**Steve Rogers  
Long Island, New York  
2:17 PM**

As Steve sat in a taxi on a drive to Long Island, he tried to remember the instructions Percy had given him for how to get into Camp Half-Blood.

Five years ago, right after they'd gotten back from that devastating trip to Thanos and before Percy had disappeared. He'd told Steve, and only Steve, which made him feel honored but also kind of freaked out.

"The gods would literally hit me with a bolt of lightning if they knew I was telling you this," Percy had told him. "But to Tartarus what the gods think. Still, I should probably not take any chances. Don't tell anyone after I tell you."

Steve had promised, so Percy had told him.

"The Mist was created to make a level of reality that mortals can understand. But I think that you've seen enough that a dragon, some gold sheep skin, and a multi-colored campfire wouldn't exactly blow your mind. You'll have to concentrate though. It's a pretty strong layer. Peleus—that's the dragon—is pretty fierce, but if one of the campers tells him to stop then he will. Maybe try and wave to one of the campers and they'll get you in. You're Captain America, so I don't think you'll have much trouble. But only try and get to camp in _emergencies. _Got it?"

Steve asked the taxi driver to let him out at the address Percy had given him and he gave him a pretty strange look.

"There's nothing there. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Steve said firmly. The driver just shrugged and drove in the direction of the address. Steve got out and stood out on the beach. He was starting to doubt Percy's instructions. There was the huge pine tree and a strawberry farm, but there wasn't really anything unusual, was there?

He concentrated. Nothing happened. He tried again. That time it worked.

Have you ever been outside on a really hot day and seen heat waves? Imagine that, but on a much larger scale, and the landscape actually changed when the heat waves stopped.

That was what it was like for Steve. He had to focus to keep his jaw from dropping.

There was a huge dragon near the pine tree, and on the pine tree was the Golden Fleece. There were some cabins in the distance and some kids in armor running errands. It looked more like a military school than a summer camp, but then again, the Snap changed everything, for better or worse.

He hesitantly walked closer to the tree, getting the attention of a camper who was standing in front of the tree next to the dragon. She glanced over casually and then looked away. Then she took a double take and looked at Steve closer.

"Hello." Steve said uncomfortably.

She didn't even answer and pointed to the dragon next to her. "Can you see this?" Steve shrugged.

"The dragon? Sure."

"How—"Then her eyes widened. "You're Steve Rogers."

"Thanks, I know."

"But you're an Avenger."

"I know that too."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to find a camper named Nico di Angelo."

She looked at him quizzically. "Nico? What do you need Nico for?" Steve sighed.

"It's a long story. Could you just call off your dragon so I could get in?" She shrugged.

"Well, you're Captain America, so I suppose you'd be trustworthy. Still, I'm gonna have to bring you to Chiron."

"Yeah, okay."

"In that case… Peleus, down!" The dragon lay back down again, his eyes following Steve as he cautiously stepped through the border.

The girl smiled. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Captain. I'm Lou Ellen, by the way."

After Steve had gotten permission from Chiron, who had gladly let him go find Nico, who was apparently getting even more depressed than he usually was, and even Will Solace was having a hard time cheering him up.

Lou Ellen pointed him towards the sword fighting arena, looking afraid for his life. Steve walked towards the arena, getting a lot of strange looks on the way. But Steve was used to it, being Captain America and all.

One little boy came up to him and shyly asked for his autograph, pushed by what looked like his older sister. "Come on, Jake." She muttered. "You've killed a hellhound, but you can't ask a mortal hero for his autograph?"

Steve smiled at the kid and signed a piece of paper. The older sister gave him a tired smile and asked where he was going. "I'm looking for the sword fighting arena." He answered politely.

"The sword fighting arena? That's over there." The girl pointed towards it.

"Come _on, _Angela." Jake whined from a foot away. Angela walked over to Jake.

Steve said thanks, and didn't bother telling her that he was getting lost in this huge camp.

Finally Steve managed to find the sword fighting arena, where he figured out why Nico was the only one there.

He was taller, older, and even darker, if that was possible. He wore the same skull ring that he always did, and used the same Stygian Iron Sword to fight, and those straw dummies certainly weren't good to bother anyone any time soon.

His black sword whirled through the air, cutting off all the limbs of the straw dummies, and Steve figured that there were a whole host of demigods outside the arena, waiting nervously for him to be done. Nico looked so absorbed that Steve didn't doubt that anyone who moved too quickly near him would lose a limb too.

Finally Steve got up the courage to step forward. "Nico?" Fluid as thought, the black sword was right next to his throat, but luckily the sword stopped moving when Nico saw who it was.

"Steve?" He sheathed his sword. "What are you doing here?" Steve shrugged.

"No reason. Thought I'd do some sightseeing, since this is, you know, a camp where the gods' children hang out?"

Nico raised his eyebrows. He didn't look very amused.

"Okay, fine. Jeez, can't you take a joke?"

"I'm not really in the mood for jokes these days."

"We might have figured out a way to bring everyone back."

Nico looked so surprised, the dead look in his eyes actually changed for a second. "Really?"

"Yeah."

Nico looked at him. "And how are you supposed to do that? It's not like we could aim for the arm this time."

"It's gonna sound pretty crazy."

"You're saying that to a kid that was born in the nineteen thirties, got trapped in a magic hotel, and came eighty years later."

That was a good point. "We're travelling back in time."

"You're doing what now?"

"You heard it."

"Going back in time? That's impossible."

"So was wiping out half the universe with one snap." Steve pointed out. Nico shrugged. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. I mean, I've been let down so many times, what's one more? Will's always telling me I should get out more." His eyes widened. "Oh, Tartarus. Will's not gonna be happy about this."

* * *

"You want me to get Percy?" Hazel stared at Jason. "Why?"

"You're like his little sister. He'd come if you asked him to." Jason told her. "He doesn't really like me at the moment." His face darkened.

"How do you know that?"

"I don't. We're just guessing. Hazel, this entire thing is guessing. Going back in time is practically impossible."

"Are you sure Nico couldn't do it? Or-or Steve or Natasha?"

"Come _on, _Hazel. What are you afraid of?"

Hazel was silent, but her expression showed it all.

_Him._

They all had had their different ways of coping. But Percy had lost something that was more important to him than any of the others combined. No one knew what he had done to push through, but they knew that whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"All right." Hazel said finally. "I'll do it." Jason nearly sighed in relief, but he restrained himself.

"Okay, good. Don't worry; you're gonna be dam good at it."

"What?"

* * *

**Hazel Levesque**  
**Hoover Dam, Nevada  
4:19 PM**

Hazel arrived at the Hoover Dam and was greeted by complete chaos.

People were screaming, kids were crying, and the tour guides were running around, yelling at the top of their lungs over the din, "It's okay! It's just a cleaning!"

Hazel doubted it, so ran over to the guide and asked where all the trouble was coming from. He pointed wordlessly at the window, and Hazel rushed over to it and looked through it. It was too dirty to see through. She cursed and grabbed a piece of iron from the ground (it just popped up, like it always did when she was agitated) and tossed it at the window, which shattered.

Now, above the shouting and the screaming and the yelling of the tour guides, there were also alarms piercing through the air.

Hazel stuck her head out the window, hair whipping in the breeze, and saw the incredible sight.

There was a whirlpool inside the dam, sucking up some strange creature, and it was so deranged and wounded that it took Hazel a second to recognize it.

A drakon, one of the biggest she had ever seen, and battling it was a much more different person that Hazel had known.

The drakon was roaring, adding more noise to the chaos, and was trying with all its might to break out of the watery trap that it was held fast to.

Percy manipulated his hands so the water swirled faster, and he jumped down from the whirlpool that he himself was standing on, Riptide raised high. He slammed his sword into one of the glowing eyes of the drakon, and it howled in pain.

Hazel could just catch the barest hint of a bitter smile as he hacked and chopped at the scales. In fact, if Clarisse was there, she would have to grudgingly admit that he was just as worthy as she was of the title of Drakon-Slayer.

Hazel wanted to help, but she doubted this was the time. Plus she had been in retirement for nearly three years now, only fighting off monsters when they threatened to hurt her or her family. She hadn't seen Arion in months, let alone fought in battles.

Percy finally got an edge into the rock hard scales of the dragon and ripped it off. From there he stabbed right into the open skin of the drakon and… well, you don't need to know the details.

Suffice it to say that soon enough, that drakon was crumbling to dust, fighting the entire way. The water in the dam went back to normal, sloshing slightly. Percy collapsed on the grass, not even bothering to collect the spoil of war; the green scale that he had ripped off.

Hazel was impressed. He'd held that whirlpool for a good amount of time, at the same time attacking the monster with all the skill that he had.

She knew she had to get to him fast, before he disappeared again, so she shadow traveled.

Nico had taught her the basics, and she'd just home taught herself from there. She did it rarely, since death and darkness was more Nico's domain of skill, but she wasn't bad at it.

She appeared about five feet away from him. He had stood up and was wearily wiping his sword on the grass, trying to get the monster dust. When she appeared, he froze, and then turned slowly.

"Hey, Percy." She winced at the casual greeting. She never had been good at those. It sounded like a, hey-I'm-meeting-you-for-lunch sort of thing, not what it was supposed to be, a hey-I'm-meeting-a-friend-I-haven't-seen-for-five-years-and-now-he's-a-murderous-vigilante.

Percy studied her before answering, removing the hood that had been covering his face. With a pang, Hazel realized it was the Tsunami hood that Piper had made for him.

"Hazel."

Hazel finally got a good look at her friend that she hadn't seen in half a decade.

His black hair was the same as it had always been, messy and windswept, but a bit more grown out. His green eyes were almost the same, but now, instead of cheerful and sea green, they now looked like poison, deadly to the touch and guarding.

He had more scars running down his body, but Riptide flashed the same as ever, Celestial Bronze and beautiful. He had some facial hair on his chin, probably not having the time to shave when he was doing… whatever he was doing.

Yes, Percy Jackson had been changed over those five years, not necessarily for the better.

"What are you doing here?" His voice was hoarse, like he hadn't used it very much.

"I would ask the same thing about you."

"Isn't it obvious?" He gestured hopelessly around at the scene near them; a Hoover Dam that was overflowing, the monster dust covering nearly the entire valley, Riptide lying on the ground next to him.

Silence fell.

"You've changed." Hazel said suddenly.

"So have you." He replied uncomfortably, starting to inch away again.

"Oh, no you're not. Percy Jackson, I haven't seen you in five years and you're trying to get away from me without a hug?" She walked over to him and they hugged. Hazel thought she heard a sob escape from his lips, but it was gone when they pulled apart.

"Thanks. Now can I go?"

"We think we might have found a way to bring everyone back." In came out bluntly, not the way she was exactly going to break the news, but she couldn't take it back now.

He was halfway to turning around again, but he froze. "What?"

"You heard me."

He rubbed his face furiously before saying again. "Stop it."

"Stop what?"

"You're trying to give me hope. Stop. I-I can't let this happen again."

"Come here." She said softly. When he didn't, she came to him.

"We need you, Percy. This plan, it's a long shot. I half don't believe it myself. But there's a reason we're the only people out there who didn't move on. Because _we can bring everyone back. _I know you miss… her. But we could bring her back. I promise you Percy, I wouldn't come here if I didn't think there was a chance that we could do this. We need you."

This entire speech, he was looking away from her. But when she paused to take a breath, he looked at her again. His green eyes looked less angry, now more lost and in pain.

"You don't need me."

"Of course we do!"

"Not according to Clarisse."

"What are you-"

Hazel stopped short. She realized there was a reason that Percy didn't come back to Camp Half-Blood, there was a reason Paul couldn't find him. There was a reason he was staying away from all of them, travelling the country, left to deal with the events by himself.

Because Clarisse had finished with him.

"Clarisse doesn't know anything. She was angry and she took it out on you. Seriously, why would you believe her? She doesn't speak for Camp Half-Blood, she doesn't speak for Camp Jupiter, and she _definitely_ doesn't speak for us."

"Who's us?"

"Everyone that's left."

Percy looked away, and then back again. This time his eyes were full of determination, and Riptide was held tightly in his hand.

"What are we going to do?"

"It's a long story."

"I've had practically no entertainment for five years. I could use a long story." Then he froze. "It... it doesn't have anything to do with time travel, does it?"

She stared at him. "Actually, it has _everything_ to do with time travel. How'd you guess?" Percy shrugged.

"I didn't tell you. Rachel... she said another Great Prophecy."

She nearly fell over. "What? Do you remember it?"

Percy closed his eyes and recited,

_Through times both old and new_

_A team must find their way to_

_Face either their death or salvation _

_And a reincarnation_

_Will await them if they find their way through_

_The disgraced must come together_

_Their failure will become their tether_

_And destruction following a betrayal from one of their own_

_Old enemies they will face_

_For a choice will end his days_

_The universe will be preserved or razed_

He finished and opened his eyes. The way he recited it told her that he'd been thinking about it ever since it had been spoken.

"That... that was a limerick." She said. Percy nodded, slightly annoyed. "Yeah, I know. I've been trying to figure out the lines this entire time. I guess the _'through times old and new' _means that we'll be travelling in time. As for the '_a choice will end his days'_ line, well," he snorted. "I've heard that one before."

"That's highly disturbing. And, also kind of weird."

Percy shrugged. "Yeah, that's because the author is really bad at writing poems."

"What?"

Percy looked just as confused as her. "I... don't know."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. We'll have to pick apart some of the other lines when we get to the Compound. The rest of the Avengers will be able to help. '_Betrayal from one of their own...'" _Hazel mused to herself. "I wonder what that means."

"Your guess is as good as mine." Although Percy's eyes flicked away and back as if he'd already given thought to it.

"Another Great Prophecy... I can't believe it. The last time Leo died. Who-"

"Don't." He cut her off again. "Don't think that way."

She sighed. "Okay. So are you coming back, or what? We really could use you, Percy."

He turned away, but when he looked back, there was fresh determination in his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, I will."

Hazel threw her arms around him, and he stiffened, like he hadn't had a hug in years. Which, come to think of it, he probably hadn't. "Sorry." She extracted herself carefully.

"It's okay. Besides, I haven't had a good chocolate chip cookie in ages."

Hazel smiled sadly. The Percy that she used to know was coming back. And by the gods, she was going to keep him that way.

* * *

**A/N (original) thanks everyone for your patience! I know I took longer than usual to update and I apologize for that. Part of it was because this was a lot longer chapter than usual. Also, check out my new chapter names! I'm very proud 'cause I'm really bad at thinking of good chapter names, but these ones were good (I hope).**

**Anyways thanks to everyone that reviewed! PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP REVIEW! They're the best please please please review! **

**Thanks to reviewers:**

**DaughterofAthena223  
IdrisianGraecus (Yes, I will have a few deviations from canon. I don't want to spoil anything tho, so I won't say too much. Suffice it to say there will be a few big deviations. As for the Percy going to the Battle of Manhattan thing, I haven't decided yet but… probably not, to be honest. Sorry!)  
DarkShadowDragon16  
GottaLoveBooks14 (What's weird? I don't think you finished)  
The Sorrowful Deity  
HISHB (Well, I guess you're just going to find out, aren't you? :)  
the guy who loves all gunpla  
NostalgicFangirl  
Guest  
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Guest  
Guest (Yeah, I like to play around with the trailers. I mean, Marvel does it, so why shouldn't I?)  
Guest  
avengersboy946  
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Lieutenant Myst  
HISB  
tremors  
Spottedfrost7 (Thank you so much!)  
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tillerm6 (Yeah I didn't like how I killed off two of my favorite characters either)  
Hisb (Hmm not all caps this time! This is new! Also, here's the update. You're welcome!)**


	8. Back to the Future's a Bunch of Bullcrap

**A/N I'M SO SO SO SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE EVERYONE! PLEASE FORGIVE! Also, happy summer.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: "Back to the Future's a Bunch of Bull Crap?"**

**Avengers Compound  
Upstate New York**

"Drifting left. On the side there, Lebowski." Tony strolled through the Compound. He turned to Rocket, who was working on something under the glass platform. "How's it going, Ratchet?"

"Rocket!" Nico called from his position on the side.

"Whatever."

Rocket ignored both of them. "It's Rocket. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal."

"Yeah, well, you should have seen Annabe—"

Tony stopped abruptly when he saw the look on Percy's face. It looked almost dangerous. "—Einstein." He finished lamely for Rocket's benefit. No one, especially not Percy, was fooled.

"It's like She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." He muttered but dropped the subject.

Scott, Jason, Bruce, Steve, Frank, and Rhodey were talking in a side room. "Time Travel suit? Not bad." Rhodey commented on Scott's new apparel.

"Maybe don't wear it in public, though. People would think we're crazy." Jason said.

"We _are _crazy!" Hazel pointed out. Jason ignored her.

Hulk brushed by and touched the Pym Particles, resulting in Scott freaking out. "Hey, hey, hey. Easy, easy!"

"I'm being very careful." Hulk said patiently. Jason shuddered, who still hadn't gotten used to Hulk talking like a normal person.

"No, you're being very hulky!" Scott said impatiently.

"I'm being very careful." Bruce repeated. Scott held up the red tube of Pym Particles. "These are Pym Particles, alright? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have. We're not making any more."

"Scott, calm down." Jason told him.

"Sorry." Scott took a breath. "We've got enough for one round trip each, plus to test runs." He pressed a button, shrinked, and came back up again. "One test run." He amended.

"Scott!" Frank protested.

"Sorry."

In the testing chamber, Steve, Tony, Nat, Scott, Bruce, Rhodey, Nebula, and Hazel standing near the controls of the platform, ready to send one team member somewhere in time. As always, Percy was standing in the shadows. Jason was talking to him quietly, and Percy made no notice of him besides flinching every once in a while.

"All right. I'm not ready for this." Scott said nervously.

"I'll do it."

Everyone jumped and turned around. Percy shook off Jason and walked up to the rest of the team. "I'll do it." He repeated.

Hazel looked at him with concern, the rest giving each other shocked looks at hearing the hoarse voice. Percy had barely spoken to any of them since he'd gotten there.

"Percy, you're not ready—"

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, Hazel." He snapped back. "I should be the one to test it." Clint gave Percy a impressed look. Percy's mouth didn't necessarily smile, but his eyes did.

After some muttering, they agreed.

Percy walked in moments later, wearing the suit that Scott had been. He examined it warily. "Well, it's not a pair of sweats, but it'll do."

"Perce, you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about it."

"Why would I worry? I'm just breaking every law of physics ever created."

"Not _all _of them." Tony protested. Percy raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, okay. A lot of them." Frank grinned.

Percy took position on the platform, and couldn't help thinking that Annabeth would love this.

_Idiot, Percy. Don't think about it._

Jason couldn't help thinking how much Leo would rave about this thing.

_Idiot, Jason. Don't think about it._

"Wait-wait a second. Let me ask you something." Rhodey interceded. Everyone turned to look at him.

"If we can do this, you know, go back in time, then why don't we just find baby Thanos and—"

He made a complicated gesture that conceivably showed strangling Thanos with a rope. Everyone looked at him in horror. Even Clint and Percy, the two angriest people in room, looked disgusted.

"Okay, first of all, that's horrible—"Bruce began.

"It's Thanos." Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"—And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future."

"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them… Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved." Scott said.

"Bingo." Clint said.

"That's not how it works." Nebula muttered. "Well, that's what I heard." Clint replied.

"What? By who? Who told you that?" Bruce asked.

Rhodey rolled his eyes again like it was obvious and started counting on his fingers. "Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time—"

"Quantum Leap." Scott added helpfully.

"—A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time—"

"Hot Tub Time Machine."

"Hot Tub Time Machine. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel."

"Die Hard?"

A faint smile appeared on Percy's face. Hazel caught it. Progress.

"No, that's not…"

"This is known." Rhodey finished. Bruce sighed. "I don't know why everyone believes that, but it isn't true. Think about it: if you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And if you travel to the future, that future becomes your past, which now can't be changed from your future…"

"Exactly." Nebula interceded.

Frank put a hand to his head. "Ow."

"I'd rather not think about it." Hazel agreed.

"So… Back to the Future's a bunch of bullcrap?" Scott said in disbelief. Percy shrugged. Bruce turned to him. "What? You know anything about this?"

Percy looked like a little kid caught with his hand in the candy jar, quite at odds with his dark appearance. Nico could take lessons from him.

"Um… yeah, I know some things." He obviously hoped that no one would question him anymore, which resulted in Nico (who had walked over to hear the conversation) butting in and saying,

"Annabeth told him one time. She was hypothesizing on how it could work. Ironically, it involved the Pym Particles. She was _obsessed _with Hank Pym. 'Yeah, he was a stuck up brat, but he was freaking smart.'"

"Rude." Scott muttered. "But true."

Nico shrugged. "Her words, not mine."

Percy blinked. "Yeah, what he said."

"She and Leo would have figured out time travel way before Tony came along. No offense, bro." Jason called from his spot on the side. He was reading a letter from Dakota about some camp stuff.

"None taken." Tony replied. "Good progress, kid. Talking about it? That's good."

"Hypocrite." Natasha muttered.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm not a kid." Percy interceded. "I'm twenty-five. Certified young adult."

Tony shrugged. "Yeah, well, you were a kid when we met, and a kid you will remain. Plus, I'm a lot older than you, like—"He stopped. "You know what, I'm not gonna say my age."

Frank snorted.

Bruce exhaled through his nose. "Okay, moving on. Alright Percy, we're going in three… two… one…"

Percy looked suddenly determined and he switched on his white helmet. His fist clenched. Then he shrinked into the void of the Quantum Realm.

* * *

Percy shot up again somewhere in the Great Lawn in Central Park in New York. He definitely felt discombobulated, whatever that meant, and decided to go hide behind a tree just in case he threw up (which he didn't, thanks for asking).

He wondered what time period he was in. He looked around. Kids were giving him strange looks because of his suit, no doubt. He'd have to move around. They were on their phones. So, sometime in the twenty-first century.

He ran over to one teenager. "Hey, kid. What day is it?" The kid—he had to be at least fourteen—looked nervous.

"Tuesday."

"I mean, what's the date?"

"Uh… September 18th."

Percy froze.

"Are you, um, okay?"

"Yeah." He muttered. "Yeah, I'm fine."

September 18th. He remembered that date. If it was the year he thought it was, then… _she was there._

Of course, so was he, but that was a minor detail.

He closed his eyes and tried to remember where he had been on September 18th. But luckily, he didn't find Annabeth. Annabeth found him.

"So… uh, how's remodeling Olympus going?" Someone asked someone else. Percy rolled his eyes. Just some other poor kid with his girlfriend.

_Wait._

Olympus? Also, that voice sounded like his. Hold on. It _was _his.

He made the mistake of glancing over. _Whoa._

It's weird enough to see a video of yourself as a younger person. Actually _being_ there when younger you was also there? That's just crazy talk. But it was worth it to catch a glimpse of Annabeth.

Yep. That was her, alright. Annabeth and himself about twenty feet away from him, and plus he was hiding behind a tree. Perfectly safe, right?

Percy couldn't resist peeking at her from the huge oak tree that she was hiding behind. Seeing her gave him a confused jumble of emotions, half joy, half terrible sadness.

Annabeth's grey eyes lit up like they always did when she talked about architecture. "It's doing so great. It's a dream come true for me, you know." She started going on about architecture, like she did. It was enough for Percy just watching her, wasn't it?

The white bracelet on his wrist started to beep, signaling that he was out of time. If only he could just talk to her. Just this once, before he was sentenced back to the Tartarus that was Earth in his time. No, actually... Tartarus was slightly better. At least she was with him when they were in Tartarus.

Past-Percy's instincts were honed to near perfection, and his eyes lingered on the tree that Present-Percy was hiding behind. Present-Percy froze. Eventually Past-Percy turned away.

Plus, Annabeth looked _so _cute at the moment. Her blond hair was swept over her shoulders. She was wearing the usual Camp Half-Blood T-Shirt and jeans. Somehow, her being so casual only endured her more to Percy.

Annabeth stopped to catch her breath and took a swig of her water bottle, which was now empty. "I'll go throw this away."

"Right now?" Past-Percy protested.

"Save the environment, Seaweed Brain."

Present-Percy realized that the garbage can that she was heading towards was right next to him. Excitement grew in his chest. This was his moment.

Then he realized how weird it would be to talk to her. A twenty-five year old dude in a hipster white suit talking to a hot seventeen year-old? In most cultures that was frowned upon.

She was getting closer now. Seeing her walking towards him broke his heart. Why had he not appreciated her more? How many times had he told her he loved her? Not enough, obviously.

The thing on his wrist beeped more urgently. This was his moment. He had to take it. Recklessly, he stepped forward, dropping Riptide. "Anna—"

He disappeared.

Annabeth froze, looking around for the source of the noise. It sounded like Percy. She turned around, just to make sure. "Did you say something?"

"No. Why? You okay?"

Annabeth bent down to touch the black ballpoint pen on the ground. "Yeah. Did you see something?"

"Nah. Your nerves are just frayed. No judgement. I thought I heard something over there too."

Annabeth frowned. Instinct was telling her something was up. "Did you drop your pen?"

"Um…" Percy checked his pocket. "Nope. Safe and sound. Seriously, what's up? Was there a monster or something?"

Annabeth shook her head slowly. "No." She said quietly. "Not a monster."

* * *

Percy flew back into his own time period. The helmet came off and he gasped, doubling over. Instantly, Jason was at his side. Then Hazel and Frank.

"Hey, hey, hey. You okay? Come on, Percy, looked at me." Percy looked up at Jason, taking deep breaths to calm himself down, standing up straight again.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm fine." He shook his concerned friends off.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Percy clenched his fist, feeling Riptide in it once again and saw a lonely strand of blond hair sticking to it. "It worked." Annabeth's laugh still echoed in his ears.

_By the gods, Annabeth was coming home._

* * *

**A/N I'M SO SO SO SORRY FOR WAITING SO LONG I HAD SUCH BAD WRITERS BLOCK I'M SO SORRY! I promise things will be better for next chapter. Also, the scene that was in this was right before a short story in "The Demigod Diaries" seconds before the story, "The Staff of Hermes". I thought it would be cool to show Percy Annabeth again. Please don't be mad for not granting Clint a glimpse at his family.**

**And yes, Riptide can travel through space and time. I decided that, so don't y'all be bugging me about it.**

**I've got one question for you all, and hopefully you'll understand. I know this is a spoiler but: **

**Hazel or Natasha?**

**Last issue: PLEASE VOTE ON MY PROFILE!**

**Please continue to review as always! They're the best! Shout out to reviewers:**

**Br0kenTh0rn (Heck yes man!)  
NinjaFang1331  
Spottedfrost7  
the guy that loves all gunpla (Are you asking if the monsters will come back, or the campers? If the latter, I'm going to answer that with a question: What about Gamora and Loki, will they come back?)  
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HISBx3 (There you go)  
**


	9. This is the Fight of Our Lives

**Chapter 9: This is the Fight of Our Lives**

* * *

**Percy**

* * *

He gathered the remaining of the seven together, as well as Natasha, Bruce, Steve, Tony, and Clint. He hadn't invited Thor because he was so drunk lately, he was worried he might forget and accidently tell someone about the Greek Gods. They discussed the prophecy, which they put on a holographic projector.

_Through times both old and new_

_A team must find their way to_

_Face either their death or salvation_

_And a reincarnation_

_Will await them if they find their way through_

_The disgraced must come together_

_Their failure will become their tether_

_And destruction following a betrayal from one of their own_

_Old enemies they will face_

_For a choice will end his days_

_The universe will be preserved or razed_

Tony listened intently. "A limerick. Wow. That must mean it's _really _bad."

"Oh, yeah." Nico agreed. "Limericks are the worst kind of prophecies, second only to a Shakespearean Sonnet. Will told me that once."

Natasha massaged her forehead. "Are prophecies always this confusing?"

"Usually more." Percy admitted. "Anyway-" He grabbed a laser pointer and aimed it at one of the lines. "I think that the two lines, _the disgraced must come together/their failure will become their tether _has already happened. You and Steve-" He looked at Tony. "Have made up, so that must be what that means."

The two both looked uncomfortable.

"And the line _through times both old and new_ I thought just meant like, reminiscing on old times, but it literally means going through times both old and new, since we're travelling through time."

"Well, whatever it means, it definitely doesn't sound good." Steve said.

"Yeah." Hazel said. "That's how you tell it's a Great Prophecy."

Cap looked confused. "Do some prophecies talk about good things?"

"No."

"Then why-"

"Regardless," Clint interrupted. "I'm more interested about the_ following a betrayal from one of their own _line. Who would do that?"

An awkward silence fell, everyone trying not to look at each other.

"We shouldn't think about prophecies too much." Hazel said, trying to lighten the mood. "They usually only make sense after the events happen. It might not literally mean a betrayal is going to happen."

"Oh, yeah." Natasha said sarcastically. "Because the word 'betrayal' means tons of different things, doesn't it?"

Silence fell again.

"So... yeah." Nico said. "We should probably get back to the Time Heist."

They all muttered agreement and left the room, the words of the prophecy still swirling in their heads.

* * *

Frank and Hazel took a detour on the way to the meeting at Frank's insistence. Nico gave them a curious look but kept walking.

In a secluded and random room in the Compound, Frank took out his lifeline stick. "Hazel, I'm worried that it's going to burn."

"What are you talking about? Of course it won't." She said, dismissing the idea.

"I don't know." He said helplessly. "I just had a nightmare last night, and it wasn't anything good. I think that there might be something coming. Something big."

"Well, yeah. We're travelling through time."

"That's not what I meant. Just in case... something happens, and-"

"Shut up." Hazel said firmly. "Nothing's going to happen. You're just having anxiety."

"Listen to me." Frank took her hand gently. "I need to tell you I love you, okay? I haven't told you enough lately. And tell Emily too, okay? If-if anything happens, which I'm sure it won't. I just had to tell you that."

Hazel was silent. "Frank, nothing's going to happen. I'm sure it's just a worried thought, so stop thinking like that. Tell Emily yourself, when you get home. When _we _get home. I won't let you-"

Her voice faltered, and she swallowed. "I can't lose someone else."

Frank looked at her, and they kissed.

Maybe if they had been paying more attention, they would have noticed Nebula standing near the doorway, listening to everything they had said. She turned away when they started kissing. She determinedly rubbed her eye. That thing in it would _not _go away.

* * *

They all gathered in a kitchen/living room, which had turned into an unofficial meeting room for the Avengers. It was funny how casual spots usually became meeting places, instead of the literal room that was called the meeting room. Sort of like how they met in the rec room at Camp Half-Blood when Romans, Titans, and Primordial Goddesses were attacking.

Holographic screens were up, showing the profiles of all six Infinity Stones. Percy winced when he suddenly pictured Annabeth sitting on the couch, dutifully taking notes and asking questions. With some effort, he took his mind to a different subject.

Percy noticed a screen that said, TIME HEIST: BRAINSTORMING PROCESS. They had apparently now adopted the weird name that Scott had made up.

They all lounged on couches or leaned back against the wall, which was what Percy did until he was called up to help Tony, Bruce, and Steve organize the planning.

"Okay, so the 'how' works. Now we have to figure out the when, and the where." Steve began, pacing around the room. Tony and Percy stood on the side of him.

"Almost all of us have had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones."

"Or subject the word 'encounter' with very well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones." Tony added. Jason made a noise of agreement.

"I haven't." Scott muttered. Everyone looked at him, and he looked panicked. "Well, I don't even know what the heck you're all talking about."

Percy gave Frank a severe look, who looked sheepish. "Frank, did you not brief Scott on the Infinity Stones?"

He winced. "I… forgot." It sounded more like a question than an excuse. Percy shrugged. "Well, then, Scott, you'll pick it up as we go." Scott nodded. Bruce rolled his eyes.

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history." Tony said. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in."

"What, there's not an Infinity Stone lying around while we're all having coffee?" Percy said sarcastically.

"Of course not." Jason muttered. "Because nothing's ever easy."

"Exactly." Percy pointed his pencil at Jason.

"We'll have to pick our targets." Clint said. "Correct." Tony agreed.

"Let's start with the Aether." Steve reigned in the conversation. "Thor, what do you know?"

Hazel nearly jumped out of her chair when she noticed the lump on the chair next to her known as Thor. Judging by her reaction, she hadn't noticed he was there. He had his sunglasses on, so it was impossible to tell whether he was awake or asleep. Or maybe a-dream…

Whoops, bad Ultron joke there. Sorry.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked.

Rhodey shook his head. "Nah. I think he's dead."

Eventually they got him up and moving, which took some convincing and the promise of a beer afterwards.

"Umm… where to start? The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a… angry sludge thing, so someone's gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago, my grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves. Wooh, scary…" He chuckled and wiggled his fingers. Hazel stifled a yawn and Nico took a deep breath and trained his eyes away from Thor, which was what he did when he was resisting the impulse to kill someone.

"So Jane," Thor continued and he accidently made a picture of Jane Foster pop up where the Aether used to be. "Oh, there she is. That's Jane. She's… an old flame of mine."

Percy decided to join Nico on the try-not-to-kill-Thor table.

"She… she stuck her hand inside the rock this one time, and then the Aether stuck itself inside her, and then she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from, and we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother…" On a roll, Thor's face looked excited as he told his story, but his euphoria from the beer started to dissipate as he thought about his mother.

"Who's dead. And… Jane and I aren't even dating anymore so…" Uncomfortable silence fell as Thor started to gather himself together. "These things happen though you know, nothing lasts forever." Tony started to push Thor back to his seat but he resisted.

"No, I'm not done yet. The only thing permanent in life is impermanence."

"All right, you're done." Tony rolled his eyes at everyone and tried to get Thor to sit down again. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?"

"No, thank you, I would like a Bloody Mary." Thor replied with a smile.

The next few days passed in a blur. They worked as hard as they could to pinpoint the perfect moments to return to in their history. Percy and Jason met each other's eyes occasionally, and each knew the other was thinking of Annabeth and Leo respectively, and how good they'd be at this session of the "Time Heist".

At one point during one of their sessions, Nico went so far as to suggest that Percy and himself went to _their _Battle of Manhattan, since there were too many Avengers logically for each team and they might as well be doing something useful. They were pretty sure that Doctor Strange would be on their side, but just in case, they'd need Percy and Nico's powers to… let's say…. Forcibly negotiate their need for the Time Stone.

Percy didn't even argue. At this point, he would do anything to bring Annabeth back home.

After some debating, the Avengers agreed that this would be a logical thing to do.

Rocket the Raccoon was an entertaining addition to their ranks, and Hazel muttered under her breath to Percy that they didn't think they needed another smart mouth in the group.

They all ate together at dinner time, with Rocket pacing around on top of the table and occasionally on their food. "Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." He informed them all.

"Is that a person?" Scott asked eagerly. "Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket clarified, barely containing his impatience.

"A planet? Like in Outer Space?" Scott persisted further. Rocket momentarily stopped his pacing. "Oh look, it's a little puppy, all happy and everything."

Percy disguised a snicker by choking on his blue soda and Hazel pounding him on the back.

Rocket imitated talking to a puppy. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."

Tears streaming down Percy's face, he went back to devouring his waffles with the usual gusto.

Nebula was also an unusual addition, serious to a fault and pessimistic to say the least. Percy still liked her, however, and appreciated how much she had lost. She wanted revenge against Thanos as much as any of them, and Percy was happy to give it to her, just as long as he was able to go against whatever was left when she was done.

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula told them later during their lunch. Natasha, holding a pen and paper, scribbled something on it.

"What is Vormir?" She asked in a business like tone.

"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial Existence." Percy and Nico looked at each other, trying not to display their fear.

"It's where… Thanos murdered my sister." Nebula finished. Natasha looked up from her notebook in surprise and an uncomfortable silence fell. Percy couldn't help wondering what exactly had happened to Gamora in Vormir and had a worried feeling that they would find out soon.

"Not it." Scott muttered, breaking the awkward moment. Everyone laughed nervously and quickly moved on.

Finally they had created a rough plan on where they were going to go. "All right. We have a plan." Percy told everyone. "Six stones. Four teams. One shot."

Steve took over from there.

"Five years ago, we lost. We lost friends, we lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But that doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives, and we're going to win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."

They all took their places on the time machine, and Percy got a surreal shifting feeling as he realized he was going to have to visit one of the worst weeks of his life. Tony gave Steve an appraising look after his long speech and Steve gave him a sheepish smile.

"He's pretty good at that." Rocket commented.

"Right?" Scott agreed.

"All right. You heard the man." Tony said. "Stroke those keys, jolly green."

"Clever. You rhymed." Frank muttered.

"Tractors engaged." Bruce announced.

Rocket addressed Rhodey, who had his ship in miniature form. "Hey, you promise to bring that back in one piece, right?"

"All right, all right. Okay. I'll do my best." Rhodey didn't manage to hide a grin.

"That wasn't much of a promise." Rocket said. Rhodey shrugged.

Natasha grinned. "See you in a minute."

The time travel machine got in permission. They all switched on their helmets. Percy took a deep breath and felt his body disappear, or shrink, as he yet again flew through the Quantum Realm.

* * *

**A/N So, following through with some of y'all's advice, I decided to have Percy go to his battle of Manhattan. Bring on whatever complaints you have, I'm ready (but I would prefer that you didn't have any). I thought it would be fun to have Percy do that, and there are other reasons that you'll see eventually. **

**Much apologies about short chapters, they will most likely be longer as summer happens. Anyways, please review! I'm literally and figuratively (don't ask me how that works I don't know) begging you. Thanks to those who did:**

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tremors (Thank you!)**


	10. Titan of Time

**UNITED NATIONS BUILDING, MANHATTAN**

**2009**

**KRONOS**

A grin spread up the Titan Kronos's face as he heard the Lydian Drakon stir—this monster, he knew, they could not beat. And even if they did, they would be badly weakened, after which time he would strike. And then , Olympus would be torn down. It would be torn down brick by brick.

Then, Kronos froze. A huge amount of people were travelling through time, and they were all mortal. Mortals were certainly not advanced enough to do so in _his _time. But then, he reasoned, they might not be from his time…

Then he smiled.

He recognized one of them.

Was the brat really foolish enough to come meet him again? Was his arrogance enough that he didn't think he, the Lord of Time himself, wouldn't notice?

Well, he did indeed notice. And this time, he would be ready. The child wouldn't fool him, and he never would again.


	11. It Won't Be Easy But It Will Be Worth It

**Chapter 11: I'm Not Telling You That It Will Be Easy, I'm Telling You That It Will Be Worth It**

* * *

**MANHATTAN**

**2009**

**Percy Jackson**

* * *

Percy's body solidified and he doubled over, gasping. Nico recovered faster than him. He pulled Percy up. "Come on. We've got to hide."

Percy stood up straight and took in his surroundings. He was somewhere in Central Park, and he could hear noises of a battle going on near him. He could hear a titan—Hyperion—bellowing in the distance.

So they were just about to defeat Hyperion. And, from what he remembered, the battle was going on very near them. From the sounds of it, the demigod army was moving closer to them. "Come _on, _Percy." Nico tugged harder. "You'll see us." Percy gave Nico a strange look, who rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

Percy let Nico pull him further away. "I'm in the Underworld right now." Nico told Percy, who tried not to dwell on how weird that sounded. "But you're over there. We've got to stay hidden until we defeat Hyperion. Then we can move. The Clazmonion Sow will attack after that. That should keep us distracted. Then we can find Doctor Strange."

Percy raised his eyebrows. "A stranger sentence has never been spoken." Nico slapped Percy playfully. "Shut up."

He could now here Hyperion yelling. "You cannot imprison me! I am Hyperion! I am invincible! I am—"

Percy remembered the bark closing around his face. He could hear Grover's voice saying, "You are a very nice maple tree."

A cheer went up among the ranks, but the victory was short-lived. The squeal of the sow echoed across the city. "_REEEEET!"_

"Alright. _Now _we can go."

The sounds of the coming battle were already sounding throughout the city as Percy took the lead, the two of them trudging through monster dust and dead bodies, trying to find Bleecker Street while also avoiding being seen. They killed the occasional monster when they tried to attack, but somehow Percy felt like something was off. There weren't enough monsters. It was too quiet. Nico seemed to share his thoughts, looking around uneasily and jumping at small noises.

After about five minutes of sneaking through Manhattan, they turned a corner and immediately cursed themselves.

Waiting for them was at least one fourth of the Titans' army, or what was left, anyway. They must have been gathering together to wait when they were isolated. Nico and Percy drew their swords, automatically going into defense positions.

"Percy, can we take this many?" Nico muttered to him.

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On how much stamina we both have left."

"That's not real comforting."

"You're welcome."

At this point, the opposite sides studied each other warily. But the instant Percy slashed his sword, all Tartarus broke loose.

Percy normally could have beaten all of them without much trouble, but for some reason both he and Nico were slowing down more, like the air had turned solid. Percy drew on some water from the pipes underneath them and sent some monsters flying into the Hudson River, but that drained him even more.

Nico seemed to be have the same problems as he was about to get overwhelmed by some monsters. He slashed his black sword in an arc but the monsters dodged. He let out a yell of frustration and a skeleton rose from the earth to protect him, but he nearly collapsed from the energy it took.

The monsters surrounded him, and Percy nearly screamed. He couldn't lose another friend. He just couldn't. Nico saw the look on his face. "Go, Percy! Get the stone! I can handle this." He obviously couldn't, his face was white and sweat was pouring down his face.

"I'm not leaving you!" Percy trapped the monster in front of him with a sphere made out of water and threw it in the bay.

"Yes, you are! It's the best strategy, you know that."

Percy froze, his brain being flooded with memories of Annabeth saying the same thing. He painfully pushed the tidal wave of pain back before it overwhelmed him like he'd been doing for years. He noticed that, instead of trying to kill Nico, the monsters were dragging him away, taking him who knows where.

Nico tried to fight back but his moves were getting more sluggish. "Come on, Percy! I'll be fine, get your freaking butt out of here!" He was getting farther and farther away.

Percy felt like his heart was being torn in two. He knew Nico was right. Their time was running out. They only had another hour at most. "I'll be back for you, Nico." He decided finally.

"Yeah, you better." Nico muttered, and a dracaena delivered a blow to his head. His eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out. The monsters attacking him abandoned him gleefully, which was strange. They would never pass up an opportunity to take down a son of Poseidon unless someone was telling them not to.

Percy wrenched his eyes away from Nico and walked away. It was one of the hardest things he'd ever done, but he did it, because he knew it was the best _strategy._ He decided he hated that word. He'd be back for Nico, he promised himself. Nico wasn't going to get killed. He wasn't.

He started walking in the direction of Bleecker Street, where he hoped Doctor Strange would give him the Time Stone.

* * *

As he neared the building, a gathering suspicion was starting in the back of his mind. Something was off about this whole thing. Why would the monsters take Nico away instead of killing him? Why did they so readily abandon Percy?

_If Annabeth was here, he thought, she'd figure it out. You should have saved her when you had the chance_, said a nagging voice in the back of his brain. After the Snap, he had had nightmares of Annabeth's voice tormenting him, telling him he should've done more, he should've defeated Thanos and held none of his power back. In the dream he protested to Annabeth that he would've died. She replied back the most awful words of all:

"_I don't care." _

And Percy had woken from his dream, tears and sweat streaming down his face as he tried to realize what was real and what was fake.

He realized he was walking somewhere and had no idea where he was going. Stupid him. He shoved all his painful thoughts in the back of his mind where he could deal with them and looked around.

Percy turned the corner and came face-to-face with…

"Oh—"

Percy said some words that were definitely not godly.

Standing in front of him was a battle-weary, sixteen year old Percy Jackson, with Riptide at his side.

For a moment, the two Percys just stared at each other. Then the Young Percy leaned over, picked up a phone from a sleeping New Yorker, and dialed Annabeth's number.

"Yeah, Annabeth? No, nothing huge. It's just… hypothetically, as the Mist ever made you seen yourself, except older and weirder? No, why do you ask? Just wondering. No, I'm _not _tired. Why does everyone keep—okay, okay. Jeez, cool it. Bye."

The other Percy put down the phone and stared at Percy some more. "I'm being completely honest here, monster or whatever the heck you are, I haven't had the best day. So can you just tell me what the freaking heck you are and we can both move on with our lives?"

Percy closed his eyes and exhaled out of his nose. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Now what was he supposed to do? Couldn't he induce amnesia or something?

"Hello?" The other Percy cocked his head. "Wow, you look like me. Except, you don't. I don't even want to ask how Kronos did this."

"I'm not with Kronos." Present-Percy managed.

"Oh yeah? Prove it."

"Look, I'm-I'm on a mission. Something important. I really need to do something. And… I'm you. From the future."

"Wow. You're really trying hard right now, aren't you?" Younger Percy raised an eyebrow.

"No, you have to listen to me. Seriously. Things are bad in the future. Stuff happened, and I'm trying to reverse it."

"Uh-huh. And do you have any proof, Mr. Me-From-the-Future?"

Percy tried to think of something, anything that would prove it, but he had nothing. Just his appearances. And as he knew, appearances could be deceiving. Especially as his young self knew.

"Yeah… thought so." Young Percy drew his sword and pointed it at Percy's neck. Percy raised his hands his surrender, while he tried to think up a plan.

The other Percy was still bearing the Curse of Achilles. Percy knew his weak spot, of course, but it didn't even cross his mind to do that. It could kill him, and then the other Percy wouldn't be there to make the choice to give Annabeth's knife to Luke, therefore dooming the world.

His blade would bounce right off his skin. The only alternative was to fight him, and see if he could subdue him.

As fast as thought, Percy drew his sword and knocked it out of Young Percy's hand. Young Percy stared at him. "How did you—"

Percy attacked again, and Young Percy was forced to retreat as well as grabbing his sword. The two swords clashed against each other, Riptide against Riptide. The other Percy's eyes widened as he realized his opponent had his same sword.

"I am _so _confused." He muttered, but attacked Percy again.

What followed was a lot of cursing, attacking, and confusion.

They slashed, ducked, stabbed, and rolled. All in all, Percy could tell that he was a better swordsman. He had much more experience, and plus basically knew everything that the other Percy was going to do. Of course he knew his own style. Why wouldn't he? Unfortunately, Younger Percy knew a lot of Older Percy's moves as well, but not all of them, since he had learned a lot of new stuff since the Battle of Manhattan.

Young Percy seemed to realize this too, because he started to look more panicked as the battle neared to a close.

Finally, Percy saw his opening. Young Percy, who was mostly playing defense at this point, wavered slightly, and Percy ducked under his legs, came up behind him, and slammed the butt of his sword right on Young Percy's head. A look of shock came on the other Percy's face, and then his eyes rolled back in his head.

Percy leaned down and checked his pulse. He was still alive. That was good. Undoubtedly, he would wake up and tell Annabeth what had happened, and then he'd be in trouble. They could go looking for him, but then again they had a lot more pressing matters on their plates, Percy knew.

Of course, maybe the Fates _weren't _l laughing hysterically at his expense right now, and maybe the hit on the head actually _did _trigger amnesia and made him forget it all happened. Percy closed his eyes and offered a silent prayer to the Fates, but he doubted that would happen.

Honestly, what had gone through their minds? _Hey, we should make the stupid kid fight himself! That would be fun to watch, wouldn't it?_

Yeah, that was probably what they were thinking.

Anyway, Percy took off towards Bleecker Street, knowing for certain now that time was running out. He had to get the Time Stone, find Nico, and hopefully not die. A lot, but Percy had done more before.

On the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum, Percy examined a door, wondering if he'd die from a bunch of curses if he went that way.

"I'd be careful going that way, we just had the floors waxed."

Percy spun around and drew Riptide.

Standing in front of him was a bald woman in gold robes with a slight smile on her face. Percy figured that she was probably a wizard. He didn't lower his sword, but said carefully, "Ma'am, I'm looking for Doctor Strange."

She pondered that. "You're about… six years too early. Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery about twenty blocks that way. What do you want from him?"

Percy swallowed. That was not the plan. He pointed to the Eye of Agamotto and said, "That, actually."

"Ah!" She smiled. "I'm afraid not."

"I wasn't really asking." Percy started towards the stone. He'd lost Nico already, he wasn't about to lose the mission to a bald British lady.

"You don't wanna do this." She warned.

"You're right, I don't, but I really need that for time travel stuff. Sure you'll understand—"

The woman punched Percy so hard he felt like he was flying out of his body. Which, he realized, he was. He was literally floating. He stared at his see through hands and looked down on his body, now lying on the floor.

The woman forced another smile. "Let's start over, shall we?"

* * *

Percy explained about why he was here and who he was. The Ancient One (which was apparently her name) interrupted him when he was about to tell her about the Greek Gods existence.

"Please don't waste your time. I am already aware of them."

Percy paused. He had a number of issues with that. "You are? Then why aren't you helping?"

"It is not my place to interfere in godly manners. I am merely a guardian of the Earth. I do not protect it from itself." He stared at her.

"But there are people dying down there!"

"You win, do you not?" She said. He noticed that that didn't necessarily answer his question, but he said nothing. It probably wouldn't be good to upset the only chance he had to the Time Stone, and he could tell that this wasn't a battle he would be able to win. It was a little disconcerting, to be completely powerless.

He finally inclined his head grudgingly at her question. She nodded, satisfied. "Of course you do. This argument is futile, Mr. Jackson."

"Who else knows?"

"About the gods? The current Sorcerer Supreme knows, of course, the librarian, the assistant librarian, Wong, my second-in-command, Baron Mordo, and... others."

He briefly wondered who those others were. Since his previous efforts weren't working, he decided to go with begging.

"Please, please, please, please!" He followed her around as she paced around the roof as the battle was going on near them. He had just heard the roar of the drakon echo around the city.

"I'm sorry, Percy, I cannot help you." She said firmly. "If I give up the Time Stone to help your reality, I'm dooming my own."

Percy's mind raced. Think, think, think. What would Annabeth say?

"Um, with all due respect, I'm not sure the science really supports that." What science? He had no idea. He was really reaching now.

The Ancient One turned around and glared at him. Percy had to work to not shrink under that glare. She created a long black line, which seemed to point straight into the sky.

"The Infinity Stones create what you experience to be the flow of time. Remove one stone and that flow splits." She removed one stone, and a branch off line split in a different direction.

"Now, this may benefit your reality, but my new one, not so much. In our new branched Reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world will be overrun. Millions will suffer. So tell me, Perseus Jackson, can your 'science' prevent all that?"

Percy stared at the branch of line, his mind working furiously. Then, he had one of those rare moments where his brain actually worked correctly.

"No, but we can erase it." The Ancient One raised her eyebrows. Percy took that as permission to continue speaking.

"Because once we're done with the stones, we can return each one to the point in its timeline when it was taken. So, chronologically, in that reality…" He placed the holographic stone back on its point on the black line. "It never left."

The Ancient One still looked unconvinced. "Yes, but you are leaving out one important part. In order to return the stones, you have to survive."

"We will. I will. I promise." And he meant it. He wasn't about to go through all this, lose so many people he loved, to fail.

The Ancient One smiled again, like a cute puppy had tried and failed to do a trick. "I can't risk this reality on a promise. It is the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone."

Percy was starting to get frustrated. The sun was getting lower in the sky. "Then why the heck did Strange give it away?"

For the first time, Percy seemed to have said something that surprised the all-powerful Sorcerer.

"What did you say?"

"Strange, he gave it away. He gave it to Thanos."

"Willingly?"

"Uh-huh."

She was silent. "Why?"

"Don't ask me. Aren't you supposed to be all knowing and stuff? Maybe he made a mistake."

"Or I did." She said softly. She flicked her hand and Percy stumbled forward as he regained control of his body. She opened the Eye of Agamotto. "Strange is meant to be the best of us." She said, with a faraway look in her eyes.

"He must have done it for a reason."

"I fear you might be right." She opened her palm that had the Time Stone floating a few inches above it and handed it to Percy. He stared at it. He could feel its power, and he wasn't even using it.

"Thank you." He said honestly. Gratitude was always the answer when dealing with these all powerful beings.

"I'm counting on you Percy. We all are." Percy wondered what that meant. It sounded slightly ominous.

"Oh! Um, I was wondering, maybe you could help me with something? See, my friend is missing, and..." He explained how Nico was missing and how he'd really appreciated if she teleported him to wherever he was. He'd seen Doctor Strange do it a couple of times, so there was no reason that she shouldn't be able to.

She shrugged. "I suppose. But a word of warning: you will not be able to defeat this enemy as easy as you did last time."

_Last time?_ Percy didn't have enough time to dwell on it, because a glowing yellow portal opened under his feet and he fell through it.

* * *

**A/N Holy crap I literally laughed so hard when I saw the reaction to last chapter! Seriously that was so funny you guys are the best. Really? No one saw that coming? Seriously? I mean, I know at least one reviewer did that had the idea but still…**

**Happy Fourth of July Weekend for all my fellow Americans! And happy weekend for everyone else. This chapter was originally going to stretch to Percy finding Nico, but I just kinda was lazy and decided to split it into two chapters. And I did have Percy fight himself because I loved the battle scene between the two Captain Americas that I couldn't resist. Sorry if that seemed weird. **

**Also, I know I didn't really mention the prophecy this chapter, but there is a strong chance that I will in coming chapters. As you probably could tell, I borrowed a lot of dialogue for when Bruce got the Time Stone from the Ancient One, but whatever.**

**OH YEAH! ANNOUNCEMENT! If you guys can get me up to 201 reviews after this chapter I will update twice in one day. **

**Let's see. Anything else? Oh yeah. I'm very very sorry for the delay in updating, I had HORRIBLE writers block, like the worst I've ever had. Thanks to all those who kept reminding me to update, I appreciate it. Pretty please continue to review, and thanks to those who did:**

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	12. SO MANY BAD GUYS AHHHHH

**Chapter 12: SO MANY BAD GUYS AHHHHH**

**Percy**

Percy dropped out of the Ancient One's portal and came up standing. He took in his surroundings. He was standing in the Manhattan Bridge, right in the middle of it. He could feel the water moving underneath him, so that would probably be good if there was a fight.

He heard a strangled noise and whipped around to see Nico bound and gagged a couple feet away from him.

"Nico!" Percy ran over to him and yanked the gag out and started working on the ropes. Nico spat something out of his mouth. "Percywe'vegottagetoutofhereI'mthebaitandhe'llgetyouandhe'llgetthetimestone—"He said really fast all in one breath.

"Slow down. Who?" Percy slashed his sword down on the ropes, not really paying attention. Riptide bounced right off the ropes, sparks flying. He cursed. They were made out of Celestial Bronze as well.

"I suppose he means me." Percy froze as he heard the voice he had hoped he would never hear again, the voice that had haunted his nightmares for years… the voice of the titan Kronos.

"Styx. Styx styx styx styxity styx." He muttered and turned around slowly, half-hoping he had imagined it, but the look of suppressed terror on Nico's face and the presence that seemed to make time slow down told him otherwise.

Sure enough, there he was. Kronos, in all his Battle-of-Manhattan glory. "Perseus Jackson." He smiled. "How wonderful to see you again. Shall we barter? I have need for that… ah, object in your pocket."

"Kronos." Percy spat, with all the anger and hate he could muster with one word. "Over my dead body."

His eyes roved over his old enemy. A line of the prophecy made sense to him now:

_Old enemies they will face._

His ADHD found it funny that he was now both taller and older than Luke's body, but unfortunately, he doubted it would help his chances to point that out now. His mind raced, trying to find something, anything, some sort of plan that would get him out of the mess he was in.

He came up blank. All he could think of was grabbing Nico and using the Time Space GPS to get out of here, but he didn't know if Kronos would be able to control them, since he was the Lord of Time and all that stuff.

He had only beaten Kronos the first time by getting Luke on his side, and Annabeth had done that by reminding him of the broken promise he had made. He didn't have either of those things now. The odds weren't looking good.

So now he had his usual plan: stall for time by talking while trying to make up a plan.

"So, Kronos, why would you want the Time Stone? You're the Lord of Time. It's not like you need it."

Kronos smiled. "Very true. I don't. However, it's never something you turn down to have an Infinity Stone in your possession, and the option was just too good to possess. I knew there was at least one Stone in the area, but those wizards have magic of their own, and I could not breach the area. Once I destroy Olympus, however, I will lay waste to them. They might be able to defeat me, and we can't have that."

Percy swallowed, mind racing. He just had to get out of here, and his past self would take care of Kronos. He supposed he could try and use the Time Stone to escape, but he was a demigod. He was powerful, yes, but he didn't think that even _he _would have enough strength to use the Time Stone.

"Of course, I had other reasons for bringing you here." Kronos continued. "You, obviously, are alive. And if I won, I would certainly not allow that. The only logical conclusion I can come to is that you defeated me, as unlikely as that is. So I would like to know how exactly you did this."

"The longer you talk," He leaned forward. "The longer you stay alive."

Percy was tempted to put his head in his hands. He'd walked right into the Titan Lord's plan. His fatal flaw had endangered him once again. But it never crossed his mind to abandon Nico, and he wasn't about to do it now. He'd saved his friends and the world three times already, he wasn't about to give up now.

"You—I won't tell you." He said desperately. "You'd have to kill me." Percy was prepared for death, after all. Those five years he'd been alone, he'd even chased after it a few times. But if he died, the mission would fail. The Time Stone would be lost. He'd have to give it to Nico, free him, and somehow convince him to leave without Percy.

Kronos shrugged. "Oh, I will. But I'll let your friend go."

"Percy, don't." Nico warned. "He'll kill both of us."

Percy found that likely. He'd have to figure out a different plan. "I'm not telling you anything." He said firmly.

"Alright, then." Kronos said. "We'll do this the hard way." He slammed his scythe on the bridge, and a wave of force knocked Percy backwards. He groaned and stood up, which was a challenge. The bridge was swaying from the force of the blast.

Percy concentrated on the water beneath him, the power of the swirling mass of liquid. Kronos was being a bit stupid, honestly. Son of Poseidon plus bridge over the ocean. It didn't take a genius to figure out what would happen next.

He made a fist, and the water roared up to meet him, copying his movements like giant watery hands. Percy flexed his new water-hands.

_Sweet._

He merged the water together and rammed it at Kronos, who in turn made a wall of golden energy, effectively stopping the water in time. He raised his eyebrows at Percy. "Is that it?"

"Oh, no, buddy." Percy muttered. "I'm just getting started."

After five long years of being a vigilante, (against monsters, but still, same difference) he'd picked up a couple new skills. He had been primarily a swordsman earlier, and just used his powers when he absolutely needed to.

But recently he'd embraced his heritage as a Son of the Sea God and discovered that he was stronger when he was using his abilities. After all, he hadn't been recruited as an Avenger for nothing.

Percy concentrated on the water again. He used the force to push off the ground and float over the bridge. He suppressed a grin, despite the severity of the situation. If only Jason could see him now…

A hurricane swirled around him and he slammed the force of over one hundred miles per hour strong winds at the Lord of Time, who again swept them away with golden energy. Percy ground his teeth, thinking. He could hear Nico behind him, who had just grabbed his Stygian Iron sword, which had been swept over to him by the hurricane's winds.

He was cutting himself free currently. Percy just had to keep Kronos' attention for a little bit longer, and then Nico could get himself free. And then… well, they'd improvise. A lot.

Percy saw Kronos' eyes flick towards Nico and Percy ran at Kronos, clashing his blade against the scythe. That was a pretty stupid thing to do, because he immediately got thrown back again, running into Nico just as he got the last chain free.

The force of the hit plowed back both Percy and Nico, slamming them into one of the beams of the still swaying bridge. "Sorry." Percy muttered.

"Don't worry about it." Nico gasped, massaging his stomach where the butt of Percy's sword had slammed into it.

Kronos walked closer to them, twirling his scythe and smiling. "Come on, Jackson, this doesn't have to be painful. Just give me the stone and you can… ah, walk free."

"Ha, no."

"Nope."

Kronos shrugged. "Fine." He reacted so fast that neither of them had time to blink; he changed from lazily swinging his scythe to, in one fluid motion, drawing a knife somewhere and throwing it, with deadly accuracy, right at Percy's chest.

Nico could barely keep himself from yelling, he whipped around to see the outcome, and when he saw what had happened, he blinked hard to make sure he wasn't imagining it.

A blue aura surrounded the knife and it was suspended in midair, inches away from Percy's open palm, seemingly holding it at bay. Percy didn't even look surprised, he looked almost bored, with a teasing smile.

"Is that it?" He taunted Kronos. Nico caught his eye, looking like a hellhound had run him over.

_Later. _Percy mouthed at him, then turning back to Kronos, who tried to keep his face a mask, but his golden eyes let slip a flicker of surprise. He shrugged and pointed his scythe at the Time Space GPS on Percy's wrist and Percy felt it start getting dragged off.

He seized his wrist and held his hand on the device but it slipped through his fingers and flew towards Kronos, who caught it. He slipped it on and was about to press the button that enabled him to travel through the quantum realm, when Percy let out a roar of frustration and anger and charged the Titan.

He drew Riptide, slid under Kronos's legs, coming up behind him, and slammed the point of his sword on the GPS.

His sword bounced off Kronos's skin, since he was still under the Curse of Achilles, but it effectively shattered the device. Percy flew in the air and hit the asphalt yet again (he was really going to have to start clocking up his frequent crasher miles).

He stood up, clutching his shoulder. By the feel of it, it was dislocated, maybe broken. He grabbed some ambrosia out of his pocket and swallowed it whole, while keeping his eye on the Titan of Time.

While Percy was on the ground, Nico had started a battle with Kronos, and was actually holding his own. He'd disarmed Kronos, and Percy felt that it had fallen into the Hudson Bay, slowly sinking into the water.

Nico was mostly just catching Kronos's hand blows with his sword which bounced back every time it hit Kronos's skin, effectively pushing him farther and farther back into the city. Percy charged behind him and jumped onto him, flipping around and squeezing Kronos's neck with his thighs.

Kronos calmly flicked him off, again landing on the ground. Percy landed heard on his chest and got the wind knocked out of him. He heard Nico yell, "Percy look out!"

Percy flipped around to his other side, and just in time, because Kronos had regained his scythe and was about to deliver the killing blow. Instead he slammed it into the asphalt. The ground broke open and water sprayed out of the pipes.

Kronos was about to slam his scythe again but suddenly he froze, weapon frozen in midair. He had a look of intense concentration on his face. Nico and Percy both froze as well, shocked at this new change of events.

Kronos stood there for a few more moments, then a slow smile spread up his face. He flicked his hand and Percy and Nico slammed into a pole. "I have business overcoming Olympus, Jackson." Kronos said in response to their completely shocked and befuddled expressions.

"Your deaths have already been claimed by someone else, and who am I to interfere with another Titan's wishes?" He smiled again. "Until next time."

He charged off in the direction of the Empire State Building.

* * *

Percy and Nico stood up, groaning, massaging their various bruises. "What the _heck _just happened?" Nico asked in disbelief.

"I don't know." Percy said grimly. "But whatever it was, it was nothing good."

Nico rounded on Percy. "Oh yeah, I've got some questions for you, Jackson. You stopped a blade? How in the _world_—"

Percy grinned despite the situation. "Yeah, I picked up a few tricks."

"_Tricks?!"_

"There's water in the air, right?" Percy said, skipping over Nico's outraged spluttering. "I can hijack the water and use it to push against the blade. I learned it when I was battling a dracaena."

"Okay. That doesn't make any sense, but okay." Nico said, calming down. "How are we going to get back to our time? There's only one Time Space GPS between us."

Percy reached into his pocket, pulling out the glowing green stone. "This could work."

"No. You've never used an Infinity Stone before, what if it kills you?"

Percy shrugged, examining it. "Only one way to find out."

* * *

**A/N I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY!**

**You guys. I'm sorry. Literally. From the bottom of my soul. I know, you guys are all outraged and like, "THAT WASN'T EVEN A GOOD CHAPTER!" I know it wasn't. I'm so sorry. I had the worst writer's block in the history of ever. I have such a hard time writing battle scenes and I had a mind block. I promise on the River Styx that this will never happen again. **

In other news…

**Good job! You got me up to 209 reviews! I'll get you the second chapter tomorrow, probably.**

In other other news…

**Did I make Percy too OP?**

**I didn't think so because if he had just been alone with himself fighting monsters for five years he must've started experimenting more with his powers and what he could do, but if you guys think otherwise let me know in a review.**

* * *

**Anyways, shout out to reviewers:**

**NinjaFang1331  
HISHB  
Tyler james smith (mwahahahhahaha…..)**

**Game-Watch  
AWorldFullofWords  
The Sorrowful Deity  
Tydbox  
the guy that loves all gunpla (me: "haha that's funny." Me two days later: actually… that's genius!" thanks. I appreciated that idea)  
Guest (yeah I decided that later)  
Guest (right? I wasn't expecting me to do it either!)  
Guess who (Yep)  
Guest (that's genius but I don't know how I'll be able to make that work)  
dbzway23  
Lolol  
rb677112  
crossoverqueen9806  
UnicornFart316414  
Guest  
ScarletHazel (You'll see my reasons, friend, you'll see)  
Guest  
Guest  
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SonAdamJackson  
Hisb (Oh, I'm sure you'll be satisfied)  
Guest  
Tiaqua Neptune (thanks for reviewing my story! I really appreciate that)  
colettemckissen64  
colettemckissen64  
Guest (how am I a liar?! What did I say?!)  
Hisb  
GUESS WHO  
HISB**


	13. Watch Each Other's Six

**Chapter 13: "Watch Each Other's Six"**

* * *

**Morag**

**2014**

**Jason Grace**

* * *

"Alright, bring it down. Yep. Right on that line. Down, down. Keep going."

Jason was flying next to the Benatar next to Rhodey, directing Nebula with the controls. Hazel stood by, arms folded, studying their surroundings with interest.

"There's a bunch of precious metal here that I've never felt before!" She whispered excitedly to Jason. "Leo would lo-"She broke off, looking uncomfortable. After an awkward silence, Jason cleared his throat and walked towards the ship.

Natasha and Clint were looking bored. "Hey, can we hurry it up?" Clint said.

"Yeah, guys, we're on the clock, chop-chop." Natasha said with mock irritation. Clint looked at her, and she responded with an innocent look, but she ruined the affect mostly by smirking.

"All that," Rhodey said, disembarking from the ship. "Is really helpful." Nebula walked out of the ship, fiddling with the controls of her GPS.

"Hey, don't play with that." Jason said, half stern, half kidding. She looked up. "I do not play." She said coolly (which was about the usual tone of voice for her, to be honest).

Rhodey walked over to Clint and clapped him on the back. Hazel grabbed Natasha and pulled her into a hug. A five years ago Natasha wouldn't have done that. But now she took it gracefully, albeit a little stiffly.

"Don't die while we're gone, alright?" Hazel told her, smiling, but with concern in her golden eyes. Natasha nodded. "Don't worry. I won't be dying any time soon. Somebody's gotta keep an eye on this idiot." She jerked her head over to Clint.

"I heard that!"

Hazel walked back over to Jason. Seeing her stifled fear, Jason looked at her. "Hey, they're gonna be fine." He said, but trying to convince himself as well as her. She nodded, but her eyes still traced the two's retreating backs.

"You guys watch each other's six, okay?" Rhodey said, watching Natasha and Clint go. They looked back and just smiled.

They boarded the ship and it took off into the atmosphere. Nebula, seeing their worried expressions, said, "The coordinates for Vormir are already in the ship. All they have to do is not fall out."

They laughed nervously to break the tension and the four sat down on a rock.

"Okay, so, we just wait around for this Quill guy to show up and then he leads us to the Power Stone, is that it?" Rhodey clarified.

Nebula stood up, eyes scanning the sky. "We need to take cover. We're not the only ones in twenty-fourteen looking for the stones."

"Wait a minute, what are you talking about?"

"Who else is looking for these stones?"

"Explain, please?"

Nebula's eyes narrowed. "My father, my sister… and me."

"You? How does that work?" Jason asked curiously.

"There are two of me in the same time. One is still loyal to Thanos. The other is myself."

"That did not make any sense." Rhodey muttered. "But okay."

They moved over into a cave. About half an hour later, they heard the roaring of a ship landing, and Nebula confirmed that it was Quill's.

"Come over here. He'll enter at about… here." She pointed to the entrance of the cave, and then directed them to behind a rock that would be outside of Quill's eyesight.

Quill walked in, with something on his ears that Jason thought looked like… a Walkman?

"Jeez." Jason muttered. "I've seen those things in museums." Hazel shushed him, but grinned.

Then Quill started dancing. He picked up a little rat creature and used it as a microphone to mouth some words. He started hoarsely singing some words to the song.

Rhodey turned to Nebula asked, "So… he's an idiot."

"Yeah."

Jason nodded.

Quill slid on the muddy ground, effectively propelling him into Rhodey's outstretched arm. There was a clang and Quill fell over on the floor. Jason opened Quill's bag and rummaged around in it. He pulled out a metal object and held it up to Nebula. "Will this work?"

"Yes." She replied, examining it.

"What's that?" Rhodey asked.

"The tool of a thief." She used it to open a door of a structure that looked similar to a temple. The doors slid open. Nebula started to walk in, and Rhodey put an arm across her to stop her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Isn't this the part where spikes come out of the walls and arrows and everything—?"

"What are you talking about?" Nebula asked incredulously.

"I think you're thinking of Indiana Jones, Rhodey." Jason stifled a grin. Hazel looked back and forth between the two of them, confused. Jason had to remind himself that Hazel had been born in the nineteen forties, and wouldn't know who Indiana Jones was.

"That was based on fact!" Rhodey replied impatiently.

"No, it actually wasn't. You're a Military Kernel and you don't know that Indiana Jones is fake?"

"Listen, if you break into a place called 'the Temple of the Power Stone' there's gonna be a bunch of booby traps and—"

Nebula rolled her eyes and walked through the doors, muttering something.

"Alright, okay, fine." Rhodey raised his hands in surrender.

Jason, Hazel, and Rhodey followed Nebula into the temple.

Inside it was a pillar of energy. Floating inside it was an orb which Jason assumed was the Power Stone. Nebula placed her hand inside the energy, where it burned away the metal plating on her arm. All that was left was a bony metal skeleton as she drew out the orb.

Hazel let out a cry of concern, which Nebula waved off, studying her bare arm like she'd never seen it properly before. "I wasn't always like this." She said duly.

"Me neither." Nebula looked up. Rhodey sighed. "But we work with what we got, right?" He said, gesturing to his cybernetic legs that enabled him to walk.

Jason looked down. He still felt a twinge of guilt that he wasn't able to save Rhodey as he had plummeted to the ground all those years ago. Of course, it hadn't technically been his fault, since he had been encased in a water prison by Percy, but still…

"Um… should we go, then?" Hazel said, seeking to gloss over the awkward moment. "Yeah, sure." Jason agreed.

"Sync up." They all held up their Time-Space GPSs. "Three… two… one…"

Hazel and Rhodey pressed their buttons without pause, but something made Jason hesitate clicking his. When he looked at Nebula he saw the reason why. She had collapsed on the ground, gasping in pain, clutching her head.

"Hey—Hey Nebula! Nebula!"

* * *

**Nebula**

Nebula groaned and sat up. Her head ached.

"Oh good, you're up. What happened?"

Nebula opened her eyes. She was on the escape pod on the ship, lying on the ground. Jason was sitting next to her looking concerned. He was holding the coms device. He was probably about to call Natasha and Clint.

"What happened?" Nebula asked him.

"You collapsed." He said, still watching her. "And your Time-Space GPS is shattered. I don't know what we're gonna do now. The memory of when we found Thanos again projected out of you and—"

And Nebula's recollection of what had happened came rushing back. She lept to her feet and snatched the coms device out of Jason's hand. He stared at her.

"No. No. No. _No._ I am most definitely _not _okay. Thanos knows. He knows, and it's my fault. I've endangered the mission and I shouldn't have come. I should have seen this coming, of course this would happen—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. What are you talking about?" Jason walked over to her.

Nebula paused her pacing the ship for a minute and explained what had happened. When she finished, Jason looked like he'd been slapped in the face repeatedly. "That's not good." He said weakly.

"_No, _it's not. We have to warn Natasha and Clint. Then we have to get back to our time. That's the only place we'll be safe. We might not even be safe _there."_

She turned the on button on on the coms and spoke into it hurriedly. "He knows! Barton… Romanoff, come in, come on, work you stupid thing, he knows. Thanos knows. He—" The device spluttered weakly and then went out.

She slammed the device on the ground, frustrated. It shattered. Jason looked shocked. He had never seen her lose control like this before. She turned away from him and sat on another bench.

"We've got nothing. We're doomed. The mission is failed. My GPS is shattered, so I can't get back. I can't get hold of Barton and Romanoff, so they're doomed as well. Thanos scanned my memories, so he now knows everything that I know, so he'll be after them soon enough."

"Hey," Jason said. "At least nothing can get worse, right?"

Suddenly, a beam shot down on their spaceship, and they started rising into the air. "Oh, no. Oh no no no no no no." Nebula looked through the glass and saw her least favorite ship in the galaxy: Thanos's ship, beaming them up.

She looked at Jason, and judging by his horror stricken face he'd seen the same thing she had. "Quick." She said urgently. "Take the Power Stone, and get out of here. It's the only way that you could get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you." Jason said firmly. Nebula opened her mouth. "But—"

"No."

She stared at him, wondering how he could be this stupid. He looked back at her, face set. She could tell there would be no persuading him. She groaned and fell back into her seat, and together they looked up at the shadow of Thanos's ship, escorting them to their deaths.

* * *

**Jason**

For all you new kids out there: never say 'nothing could get worse'. That's basically begging for the Fates to do something horrible to you, and that situation right there was definitely in the top ten of 'Bad Situations'.

Nothing could get worse now. But Jason wasn't stupid enough to say it out loud again.

He could see no possible way to get out of here. "Here" being his prison cell on Thanos's ship. Nebula was right next to his. They were identical, the bars were made out of electricity instead of metal. Jason assumed that Nebula could cut through metal, and with a high enough powered shock blast he supposed that he could too.

He looked at his bare left hand. The first thing Ebony Maw had done when they'd gotten onto the ship was yank the Time Space GPS right off of his wrist with his telekinesis powers. Nebula had given him a dirty look, like, _This is all your fault._

Well, maybe it was. He supposed the sensible thing would have been what Nebula had told him to do, but he'd never left a team member behind before, and he wasn't about to do it right then.

Plus… well, from what Jason knew about Nebula was that she'd been abandoned far too many times that anyone should. He knew what that felt like. So, he stayed. He'd probably die painfully… or get his head chopped off nice and clean if he was lucky, but since this was Thanos, probably not.

Nebula had told him, as they were rising to Thanos's ship, about her sister, Gamora. "She was planning to betray us in 2014." She said urgently. "If we can get her on our side, we _might _have the slimmest possible chance to get out of here."

Suddenly the door to Nebula's prison banged open and Past-Nebula stormed in, carrying two electric spears that Jason had seen Nebula use. The two Nebulas looked slightly different. Present-Nebula had a gold plate on her head that Past-Nebula didn't have.

Other Nebula smacked Present Nebula right in the stomach with one of her swords. Present Nebula doubled over in pain, but recovered quickly.

She delivered a blow to Past Nebula, who dodged and kicked her into the wall. Past Nebula walked up to Present Nebula, who was breathing heavily.

"You're weak." Past Nebula said scornfully.

"I'm you." Present Nebula said, struggling to get up.

Jason watched the exchange with distaste, hating the fact that he could do nothing. 2014 Nebula was all of the bad of Present Nebula, and none of the good that she now had.

Past Nebula punched Nebula hard in the face, just as a green skinned woman walked in, whom Jason assumed was Gamora. Nebula, noticing Gamora's entrance, struggled to her feet.

"You wanna stop this." She said, still breathing heavily. "You know you want to. Did you see what happens in the future? Thanos… finds… the Soul Stone. You wanna know how he does that? You wanna know… what he does… to you?"

Jason could see the desperation on Nebula's face, using the ploy that was her only chance. For a moment, uncertainty crossed Gamora's face, but then it was stone again, expressionless like usual.

"That's enough." Past Nebula slapped Present Nebula hard across the face. "You disgust me…" She whispered, leaning in close to Nebula. Past Nebula drew her knives and traced them across Present Nebula's neck. It looked like she was about to slit her throat.

Jason watched with bated breath. If he was going to have to watch Nebula get killed right then and there, without being able to do anything about it…. Well, that was a pretty cruel thing for even the Fates to think up.

But Past Nebula moved her knife over to Present Nebula's head, tracing the gold plating. "… but that doesn't mean you're useless." She extracted the gold plating and fingered it.

Jason sucked in a breath. He now realized Thanos's plan. He would disguise Past Nebula as Present Nebula, who would somehow sabotage the mission to get all the Snapped back. And, knowing Thanos, he would come too. Jason would probably be said dead, somehow killed during the proceedings. And the only people who would know were him and Nebula… and they would be stuck in this stupid ship.

Yeah… things really couldn't get worse.

* * *

**A/N And on that happy note, we end! I'm sorry for the long wait again, you guys. What did I say in last author's note? Oh yeah… 'I'll get next chapter to you tomorrow.' Yep, I'm a liar. Sorry. Stuff came up during the time that I thought I was going to write, so yeah. And then just life happened. I'm very sorry.**

**Anyways, hope you liked the chapter! Thought it would be fun to have Jason tag along on Nebula's little adventure. I also gave an explanation of why Nebula didn't just use her GPS to get out of her ship, because I thought that was kinda stupid in the meeting. Also hoped you liked the little star wars quote I slipped in there. Hoped someone recognized it.**

**Expect slow (at least slower) updates from this time on. School has started. Need I say more?**

**PLEASE CONTINUE TO REVIEW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE THEY'RE AMAZING I READ ALL OF THEM PLEEEASSSEEE!**

**Shout out to all the awesome reviewers who kept reminding me to update:**

**Tyler james smith (You'll just have to read and find out!)  
MasterMike000 (thanks for your review! I promise I will never abandon this story. Thanks for your feedback!)  
dzeebest  
The Sorrowful Deity (How do you know? Maybe he does know, somehow…. Hehehehehe, like reading all of Nebula's memories. Maybe Percy told Nebula about his history one time, or something. You don't know)  
NinjaFang1331  
the guy that loves all gunpla (Thanks!)  
Game-Watch (who's lapis lazuli?)  
DaughterofAthena223 (I don't make any promises, my friend. BWAHAHAHHAHA *ahem* sorry)  
Macca69 (thanks for your review!)  
Andrew Chen  
HISHB (thanks for the reminder! Your reviews are usually what get me going to get the finishing touches on the story)  
**


	14. What Was the Cost?

**The following chapter is NOT dedicated to Disney and Sony, who failed to come to an agreement and now fans around the world are mourning the loss of Spider-Man**

**(Can you do a not-dedication? I'm just going to try it) BUT I'M SERIOUSLY FREAKING OUT, YOU GUYS. TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS IN A REVIEW!**

**Update: Alright, everything's cool now. Tom Holland to the rescue YAY! **

* * *

**Chapter 14: Lookee, a Shoe that's Falling! The Other One's Staying Up There, Though How Strange**

**Frank Zhang  
Asgard  
2014**

Frank snuck past Loki's jail cell with Thor, Rocket, and Bruce. Bruce wasn't a very easy person to hide, but they did their best. Loki was completely absorbed in tossing a cup of some sort around, so luckily he didn't see them.

They stopped at a pillar a few yards away from Jane Foster's bedroom.

Frank remembered being slightly nervous when they explained how they were going to get the Reality Stone.

"So, let me get this straight." He began. "We're going to sneak into a grown woman's bedroom while she's sleeping, and poke her with a stick?"

Tony had considered. "'Bout sums it up, yeah." He agreed. Frank had shaken his head and muttered something under his breath. Hazel had laughed and squeezed his hand.

"Frank… Fra-ank. Frank!"

"Uh, yeah?" Frank blinked, jolted out of the past. Rocket rolled his eyes. "Listening, brain boy?"

"Thor's gonna charm Jane and then Rocket'll poke her with this—"Hulk held up an extractor. "And, if that doesn't work, you'll turn into a dog to keep her distracted."

"I really doubt that she won't get suspicious after she sees Thor's—"Frank glanced down at Thor. "Um, changes."

"Welp, that's what we got." Rocket shrugged. "So we're just gonna wing it if nothing else works."

"Cool." Frank muttered. Meanwhile, Thor was seeming to have difficulty paying attention to the conversation.

Finally he swallowed and said, pointing behind him. "I'll be right back, okay? There's a wine cellar, just down there. My father used to have huge barrels of ale. I'll see if the cellar has a couple of—"

He started to back away, inching towards the mysterious beer chamber, which Frank definitely did not want to see at this time of the day, and he figured it would be best to keep Thor as sober as possible during this very important trip.

Rocket groaned. "Hey, hey! Aren't you drunk enough already?" He whisper-yelled. Frank and Bruce nodded fervently in agreement.

Suddenly, a door crept open and a beautiful curly haired woman and her attendants followed. They all ducked behind another pillar, Hulk having some difficulty but managing somehow.

"Who's that?" Frank said, not noticing Bruce's intense shaking of head.

"It's my mother. She dies today." Thor said, watching her back as she left.

"Oh." Frank felt sincerely uncomfortable. "Um… sorry."

"That's today?" Rocket said, obviously not giving a crap about Thor's feelings. Thor started breathing heavily.

"I can't do this. I can't do this. I shouldn't have come. This was a bad idea." Thor wrung his hands.

"Come here." Rocket rolled his eyes and moved in front of Thor.

"No, no, no. I think I'm having…" Thor struggled to find words. "I think I'm having a panic attack."

"Come here. Right here." Rocket repeated. Thor complied. Frank had the mistaken impression that Rocket was going to say words of comfort or something. Obviously he was wrong. Rocket jumped up on a railing so he'd be level with Thor, and slapped him across the face.

Frank and Bruce inhaled simultaneously.

"You think you're the only one who lost people? I lost the only family I ever had. Quill, Groot, Drax, the chick with the antenna, all gone. Now, I get you miss your Mom. But she's gone. _Really _gone. And there are plenty of people who are only _kinda _gone."

"So is it too much to ask that you brush the crumbs outta your beard, make schmoopy talk with Pretty Pants, and when she's not looking, suck that Infinity Stone and help me get my family back?"

This was the most open Frank had ever heard Rocket talk. It seemed to affect Thor. At least, he didn't seem quite as high any more.

He took a deep breath. "Okay."

"Are you crying?" Rocket said disbelievingly.

"No." Thor shook his head, though he was quite clearly crying. "Yes."

"Get it together!"

"You can do this." Bruce encouraged.

"All right?"

"Yes. Yes, I can." Thor said.

"Good." Rocket said, and all three of them turned towards Jane Foster's room and started walking away.

"I can do this. I can do this. I can't do this." Thor ran off.

Frank turned around just in time to see Thor turn a corner. Rocket groaned again. "Alright, we can do this without him. Go to plan B."

"Okay."

"Cool."

* * *

**Tony Stark  
S.H.I.E.L.D. Reserve Center  
1970**

Tony walked briskly down the hallway with his father. He brushed an agent in the shoulder. "Sorry." He muttered. The agent turned around quickly. "That's all right." He said cheerfully, and Tony caught a glimpse of some very familiar green eyes…

The agent turned around to discuss something with someone else, and Tony couldn't help but listen in. They were walking right by them at the same speed, so it was kind of hard not to.

"You're flying out to Fiji?" One of the agents said, who looked like a superior. "That's one of our worst areas. We've got a bad rap there, the military doesn't like us."

"I know, sir." The woman said. "But we need to protect the locals. The military's starting to take out their own issues on them."

"You've got a daughter, Stella." The man said.

"We'll get back to her." The agent said confidently.

"The military could shoot you out of the sky—"But just then the group turned a corner and Tony couldn't hear the conversation any more.

After they walked away, he asked Howard Stark, "Who was that?"

Howard raised his eyebrows. "You don't know? The Jacksons. A married couple. There are rarely couples that are agents because that's against the rules, but they work so well together that we don't really have a choice."

"Huh." Tony said, trying to sound like he wasn't interested, but secretly his mind was whirling. He remembered Percy mentioning something about how his grandparents had died in a plane crash when his mother was five.

Was it possible that these were the grandparents? They mentioned having a daughter. Tony would have to ask Percy when they got back.

"Potts. Potts!" Tony started, not realizing his father was talking to him.

"Got your head in the clouds?"

"Sorry. Just, tired."

* * *

**Percy Jackson  
Avengers Facility  
Present Day**

Percy slammed into the time machine along with everyone else. Nico quickly let go of Percy's arm.

He doubled over, wheezing. And he thought travelling in the Quantum Realm was bad…

As he was using it, he could literally feel the Time Stone sapping his energy. It had taken all of his power not to die. Nico looked similarly winded, but not quite as bad as Percy.

"You okay?"

"Fine." Percy straightened, looking around. The moment was starting to sink in. He was safe, he was in his own time, _and they had all the Infinity Stones._

"Did we get them all?" Bruce said, starting to smile.

"You're telling me this insanity actually worked?" Hazel said, a grin spreading up her face.

Tony clutched the Tesseract, Rocket was tossing the Aether back and forth, Rhodey held the Power Stone, Scott wielded the Scepter, Percy held the Time Stone between his fingers, Clint was holding the Soul Stone….

Wait.

"Where's Jason?" Percy said suddenly. They all looked to Nebula and Rhodey. Rhodey looked surprised, as if he'd just noticed Jason was gone. "I… don't know. He was about to press the GPS when we left."

"He must have been lost in the Quantum Tunnels." Nebula said, as if it was a memorized line. But Percy would worry about that later, because they still had bigger problems.

Then they all turned to Tony. He looked at a loss. "That's… impossible." Tony said. "The schematic was in a ten out of ten zone, there was no way it could have been lost unless he put in the coordinates wrong."

There was silence. Percy felt anger bubbling up under the surface. It must have been Tony's fault, right? There was no possible way, the coordinates were already set into the GPSs.

He felt like he was falling. Not another one lost, and this time there was no getting him back. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to stop the prickling in them.

They started walking back to the lab in silence, when Bruce suddenly turned around, causing Scott to slam into him, and looked at Clint.

"Clint, where's Nat?"

Clint's silence was all the answer they all needed.

Hazel put her face in her hands. Steve closed his eyes, the blow obvious. All of their faces showed various signs of grief except—which Percy would realize later—Nebula's.

* * *

**A/N Sorry about that short chapter, guys, and the long wait. So! Thoughts? Do you think I shouldn't have killed Natasha? I know, I felt really bad. Also did you like the twist about Percy's grandparents being S.H.I.E.L.D. agents? I was thinking about what I should do for the time travel, and all of the sudden that idea just clicked, and I couldn't let it go.**

**I thought it would be really interesting to have Sally's parents not actually die in a plane crash. I thought it was cool, but tell me if you think otherwise. Again, sorry for the short chapter. I'll probably (key word: probably) update sooner now because we're really getting into the exciting stuff now!**

**I had them all notice that Natasha was gone later because I figured there was a kind of symbolism in it. Natasha had never been one of the most valued members of the Avengers from within the group. They valued her, but they never really realized how much they needed her until... she was gone.**

**So, PLEASE REVIEW I LOVE YOU GUYS' REVIEWS AND JUST BECAUSE WE MADE IT TO TWO HUNDRED DOESN'T MEAN YOU GET TO STOP!  
Sorry. I have temper tantrums sometimes, hehe.**

**I'm so mad about the Sony/Disney disagreement! Tell me your thoughts, please! We can hate on their CEOs together! I'm so scared about what's going to happen to Spider-Man! how are they going to even make a movie about Spider-Man with all the Marvel stuff? **

**Anyways...**

**Thanks to reviewers:**

**DeusExMacchina21  
NinjaFang1331  
The Sorrowful Deity  
rashmi agarwal  
Game-Watch(thanks for the clarification, that makes sense!)  
DaughterofAthena223(you should be, my friend, you should be)  
Guest  
Purpleolaf96 (I wouldn't say she hates them, when she was getting mad at Percy she was just sad because Chris Rodrigeuz got dusted (sorry I don't know how to spell his name) so she took it out of him)  
SonAdamJackson (thanks for the suggestion! I actually did change that, so thanks that's a good idea!)  
OminousNight  
Guest  
Guest**


	15. Aaannndd the Other Shoe Drops

**Chapter 15: Look, the Other Shoe Dropped!**

* * *

**Percy**

* * *

Percy felt like he was falling. The loss of Jason and Natasha pierced in every step he took. But somehow he felt as if something was off. His conversation with Nico only confirmed these suspicions.

"I didn't sense his death." Nico told him quietly, while the rest ate dinner. Hazel was levitating a rock while she waited for her eggs to finish. "I know Natasha's dead. She's facing the judges in the Underworld right now. But I can't sense Jason's."

"Maybe if he died in the Quantum Realm you can't sense it." Percy offered. Not that he _wanted _Jason to be dead, but he was not ready to get his hopes up just to get them crushed again.

"Maybe." Nico said doubtfully. Hazel's rock crashed to the ground. Tony jumped and cursed. "And Percy… Nebula's been acting strange. I don't know—she's still acting like herself, but different, somehow."

"It's probably just grief. She and Jason got pretty close."

"Yeah, that's probably it." Nico said, but he didn't sound convinced. "I'm worried. I just feel like something horrible is going to happen any second."

Hazel glared at Tony while he muttered about how hard it was to get a decent meal when rocks were crashing all over the place. Steve punched him and told him to be quiet.

"Probably just nerves." Percy clapped him on the back. "We'd better get to the lab. Tony's adding the Infinity Stones to one of his gloves."

Tony carefully manipulated the metal arms to place all the Infinity Stones on his glove. The tension was so thick Percy felt like he could cut it with a knife. Rocket snuck behind Tony. "Boo!"

Tony turned around to glare at Rocket. He grinned and walked back to the group. Percy noticed he and Hazel high-five, and Frank, rolling his eyes, hand Hazel a five dollar bill. Nico's eyes followed the gauntlet the entire time.

When Percy saw all the Infinity Stones on the glove, he almost wanted to jump up and down squealing with delight like a little kid. But the loss of Jason and Natasha sobered him when he saw the Soul and Power Stones.

They had died so that the Avengers could bring everyone back, and they were going to make their sacrifices worth it.

"All right, the glove's done." Rocket said. "Now the question is, who's gonna snap their frickin' fingers?"

"I'll do it." Thor said instantly.

Everyone started arguing until Steve held up a hand. "Wait, wait, Thor, hold on. We haven't even decided who's going to put it on yet."

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you just sitting around waiting for the next opportunity?"

"We should at least discuss it." Steve pleaded.

"Look, sitting there and staring at the thing is not going to bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So the responsibility falls upon me."

"I concur with that statement very strongly." Percy muttered.

"About the responsibility or the staring at the thing part?" Frank leaned over and asked him.

"Just—never mind."

"It's not that." Tony said patiently, continuing their conversation.

Thor waved his hands impatiently. "Stop it! Listen, just let me. Let me do it." He started tearing up. Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"Oh, here we go." Hazel punched him. Lots of punching was going on, Percy noted. Frank was the nearest target. Maybe he should join in.

"Let me do something good. Something great." Thor persisted.

"Listen, buddy…" Tony gripped Thor's shoulders. "It's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, it's that, you're in no condition."

"What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?"

"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodey offered. Percy snickered despite himself, and Hazel punched Rhodey again. Percy suddenly felt an indescribable urge to do something, prevent the pain that he knew was going to happen to whoever put on that gauntlet. None of them deserved having more pain.

Thor frowned, but kept looking beseechingly at Tony. "Lightning."

"I want to do it." Percy said suddenly. Everyone's eyes darted to him. Then the whole room started bursting into arguments again.

"Shut it!" Bruce roared. He looked directly at Thor. "Lightning—" he glanced at Percy. "—or water— won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me."

"But—"Percy protested. Bruce put out a hand to stop Percy.

"You saw what those stones did to Thanos. None of you could survive."

"How do we know you would?" Steve asked.

"We don't." Bruce admitted. "But the radiation's mostly gamma. It's like, uh…" He closed his eyes, like he was trying to find the right words. "I was made for this."

Percy closed his mouth, grudgingly.

"Good to go, yeah?" Tony said to Bruce, who nodded. Percy looked around, suddenly uneasy. The feeling that he'd had ever since they'd returned was strengthening considerably. Something was wrong.

"Let's do it." Bruce said. Percy noticed his hands were shaking.

"You remember… everyone Thanos snapped away, you're just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything else that happened in the five years."

Looking at Tony's intense gaze, Percy knew that he was thinking of his daughter and his marriage to Pepper.

"Got it." Bruce agreed.

Tony produced a projection shield and covered Clint. His Iron Man suit appeared on him. Rhodey closed his helmet. The Ant-Man helmet re-appeared on Scott's head. Rocket put on his safety goggles. Hazel produced a thick metal plating that looked like a shield. Percy produced Riptide and Nico drew his sword, even though they would have nothing to fight, in theory.

Percy closed his eyes and shook his head. The feeling was stronger now. It was almost like a ringing in his ears, a growing certainty that something terrible was about to happen.

"FRIDAY, do me a favor and activate Protocol Eight." The bay doors closed, giving the room an extra layer of protection, but Percy still got the feeling that it was closing them in. He'd never been claustrophobic before, but after today he just might make the transformation.

Suddenly Percy realized someone was missing. He looked around for the blue and purple cyborg girl whose presence he'd grown used to over the weeks of planning.

_Nebula wasn't there._

"Everybody comes home." Bruce murmured to himself. The gauntlet expanded to fit his large arm, and it latched onto his hand. He grunted in pain, the energy surges lining up his entire shoulder.

Percy's mind was racing. The gauntlet was already on. Nebula wasn't here. Jason was "dead". Nebula had been acting differently. Suddenly everything clicked.

"Take it off. Take it off!" Thor said urgently.

"No, wait, Bruce, are you okay?" Steve walked closer to Bruce in concern. Bruce shook his head, too much in pain to answer.

"Percy, what's wrong?" Hazel asked.

"I—"He started helplessly. There was too much to say, and not enough time. There were two Nebulas in the time frame that they went to. What if somehow someone switched—

Bruce screamed in pain, cutting off Percy's train of thought. Everyone jumped. It was like the metal was seeping under Bruce's arm, replacing the skin with iron.

"Talk to me, Banner." Tony said worriedly.

"It's okay. I'm okay." Bruce gasped, despite the fact that he was most obviously _not _okay.

The ringing in Percy's ears was much stronger now.

"Wait." Percy muttered. No one heard him.

"Wait!" He said a little louder now. Frank turned to look at him, probably wondering why he of all people wanted Bruce to stop now.

Bruce lifted his fingers to snap them—

Percy had a brief glimpse of blond hair and grey eyes, a laughing face—

—and nearly roaring in pain now, snapped his fingers.

A blinding white light forced Percy's eyes shut.

* * *

When the light cleared, Bruce was on the floor, tended by Steve and Tony.

"Everyone, we need to lock everything down." Percy's voice seemed unnaturally loud. All was quiet. It seemed like the picture of a perfect setting. Everyone stared at him like he was insane.

"Why?" Rocket asked.

"Something's wrong. Nebula's gone."

"Nebula's _what?_" Tony looked around, as if just realizing she wasn't there.

"She muttered something about having to do something before she left. She said she'd join us later." Nico recalled.

Bruce sat up, clutching Steve's arm. "Did… did it work?"

"We don't know yet." Steve said.

Scott walked over to the window and looked out. Clint walked into the other room because a phone was ringing, and Percy had a hunch as to who it was.

But if she was back, then… then… Percy hardly dared to hope. The longing was enough to distract from the ringing in his ears… or was that just the shadow of a girl's voice?

"Guys, I think it worked!" Scott's voice from the other room said.

Then Percy had a sudden flash of Thanos's ship in his mind's eye and just had enough time to yell, "_Everybody get down!"_

And then all Tartarus broke loose.

* * *

**Annabeth**

Annabeth opened her eyes.

But had she ever closed them? She remembered talking earnestly to someone, but then getting cut off before she had finished. She reached back, seeking to remember further, and the memories came rushing willingly.

Thanos had snapped his fingers. Annabeth turned around and had seen Leo crumbling to dust. Her brain whirred at a thousand miles an hour and she understood what was happening. Soon enough she felt her own hand crumbling away.

It wasn't an exactly comfortable feeling, feeling her body slowly crumbling away to dust. It didn't hurt, exactly, but it just felt… strange.

So this was it. She was going to die. After she realized this, it calmed her, for some reason.

She wasn't very worried about herself, which surprised her, but instead she was worried for Percy. What was he going to do, with her gone? They were two halves, and once Annabeth had lost her other half for only eight months. What would he do about her being gone forever?

But no, she decided. She wouldn't be gone for long. If she knew Percy, he would never rest until he got her and everyone else back. So she turned to Hazel. She wasn't going to go without some final word, a tip for Percy. If she returned and he was gone, she might just kill herself. The Seaweed Brain would probably do something stupid, like sacrifice himself.

"If I'm gone, don't let Percy—"but then the dust reached her head, and she was gone.

Almost instantly—or perhaps it was an eternity—Annabeth's consciousness came back. She was definitely back. Or at least, her mind was.

But no, she could feel herself lying on something. This pointed that she had a body again, and nerves, and something existed that she was lying on.

But she wasn't lying on something, she was standing. And then she realized that she could hear birds singing and feel the wind on her face.

* * *

Annabeth opened her eyes.

* * *

Percy opened his eyes.

* * *

For a moment he dreamed he could see her again.

* * *

For a moment she could almost see his eyes.

* * *

But then the image faded away, and they were alone again.

* * *

**A/N And that's a wrap! Yay, guys, I finished in NINE days instead of ten! So, what'd y'all think of the chapter? PLEASE TELL IN REVIEW! I don't have much to say in this author's note, so, we'll just go straight to the begging for reviews, shall we?**

**GUYS THERE'S 202 FOLLOWERS FOR THIS STORY! GIMME SOMETHING! I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER IF YOU GIVE ME A REVIEW!**

**Okay, that sounded creepy. I will be very thankful if you leave me a review and cordially ask you if you would kindly leave one. Please and thank you. **

**Shout out to:**

**dzeebest (wow, I'm so glad my series is worth re-reading! Thank you!)  
NinjaFang1331  
The Sorrowful Deity (sweet, naive little reader. Have thirteen-soon-to-be-fourteen Percy Jackson books taught you nothing? The gods will probably get out their popcorn and a flatscreen TV for the final battle)  
Guest  
Guest (one step ahead of ya, buddy)  
Guest  
Game-Watch (PREACH)  
SonAdamJackson (we'll see if it's over. Haven't decided yet)  
HISHB**


	16. Let's Kill Him Properly This Time

**The following chapter IS dedicated to Sony and Disney, who figured it out! Good job, guys!**

* * *

**Chapter 16: Let's Kill Him Properly This Time**

**Percy**

Percy groaned and sat up. At least, he tried to. How long had he been out? It seemed like years, but one never knew. He opened his eyes.

"Oh, for the love of—"He groaned louder. He was lying on his back with a boulder on his chest. This, apparently, was why he couldn't sit up. Figured. He blinked, clearing the fog from his brain. What had happened?

Oh, yes, Nebula had disappeared, Bruce snapped his fingers and then… blank. With a grunt, Percy pushed the boulder off his chest and stood up. He would have some bruises the next day (if there was a next day) but otherwise he'd be fine.

He didn't even know where he was. It looked like the basement of Avengers Facility, but he'd never gone down there much, so he couldn't be sure. He was alone, which meant that the others…

No, he couldn't think like that. They had to be somewhere else, probably knocked aside by the force of the explosion.

This theory was proven when he heard Rhodey's voice in his earpiece. They'd all put them on after they'd returned from the Time Heist, just in case. It was Shuri's technology. They were earbuds that could reach across the world.

"Mayday, mayday!" Rhodey said, sounding panicky. "We're in the lower level, it's flooding! Does anybody copy?"

"What?" Scott said, at the same time Percy said, "Yeah, I copy."

"Percy, thank goodness." Rhodey sighed—or was that just him gasping for air. "Can you draw the water out?"

"I can try." Percy said doubtfully. He'd never done something that far away before. He concentrated. He could feel the water rushing beneath him. It was flooding out of the piping system, into the lower level where Rhodey, Rocket and Bruce were.

He closed his eyes and drew the water out and made it seep into the ground where Percy was. It splashed out of the ground under him and threw him into the air, which did not help his damaged ribs.

"It's gone." Bruce said in obvious relief.

"Can someone tell me how this happened and how we get outta here?" Rocket said impatiently.

"Scott, do you copy?" Percy put a hand to his earpiece.

"Yeah, I copy!"

"Can you get to where Rhodey, Bruce and Rocket are?"

"Probably."

"Okay, once you do, do the thing where you get really big and bring them out of that spot."

"Yessir!"

Percy rolled his eyes and laughed to himself, despite the severity of the situation. Scott's hipper personality was highly entertaining.

Now to find everyone else…

* * *

Percy pushed his way out of the debris, occasionally using some water from the pipes to move too heavy rocks out of the way. One time he had to push away what looked like the remains of the Quantum Tunnel, which worried him.

Heck, who was he kidding? This entire situation worried him.

As he walked, he thought about how this might have happened. Nebula had something to do with it, obviously. It was much too suspicious that this happened while she had disappeared. But Percy was so sure that she was trustworthy!

He was so distracted that he nearly ran into someone else.

"Nico!"

"Percy?" Nico lowered his sword. "Thank the gods. Come on. You have to see this."

"Do _you _know what happened?" Percy asked him.

"I've got a pretty good idea." Nico said grimly. "You'll see. The others are up here."

"You lose this again, I'm keeping it." Percy heard someone say. It sounded like Tony. Nico rolled aside another chunk of ruin.

Tony was holding out Captain America's shield to Steve, who rolled his eyes and took it. "Oh, hey Nico, Percy. See anyone else?" Tony asked, after lowering his repulsor when he saw it was a friend.

"Rhodey, Bruce, and Rocket were drowning, but Scott and I took care of it." Percy said casually (at least, as casual as one could be when discussing the potential death of one's friends). "Seen Nebula?"

Steve frowned. "No."

"Thor's up here." Tony jerked his head upwards. "Come on."

They walked up to join Thor on a hill, who had been observing—

Percy felt his stomach drop out of his body. A water pipe that was slowly trickling out water exploded all over Nico, who didn't even notice.

"What—how?" Percy said incredulously. He didn't even have words. How was it possible that _he _was back?

"You mess with time, it tends to mess back. What's he been doing?" Tony said to Thor.

"Absolutely nothing." Thor said contemptuously.

"Where are the stones?"

"Somewhere under all this." Tony gestured helplessly.

"He doesn't have the stones. We'd know if he did." Nico pointed out. He glowered in the direction of Thanos, and not for the first time, Percy was fervently glad that Nico was on their side.

"Not yet, anyway." Percy reminded them.

"Aren't you Mr. Ray of Sunshine?" Tony said without looking back.

"We won't let him get the stones." Steve said firmly. "I know that much."

"And how well did that go last time?" Nico said bitterly.

"We know what we're doing now." Thor said.

"You know it's a trap, right?" Steve said.

"Yeah." Tony replied. "And I don't much care."

"Just as long as we're in agreement." Thor said almost lazily. Percy nodded and slashed Riptide out of its container.

"Let's kill him right this time."

Lightning crackled, and Thor suddenly was decked out in his old uniform. Percy winced, thinking of Jason.

They all walked down to Thanos, who just sat there. "You could not live with your own failure." Thanos said calmly, watching them. "Where did that bring you?"

Percy felt rage simmer up inside of him. How dare he just sit there, waiting for them to make the first move? How dare he look so calm, when he had caused so much death across the galaxy? He felt blood rush to his head as adrenaline kicked in.

This person… this person killed Annabeth. Right then, Percy swore to make him suffer just as much and more as he had.

"Back to me." Thanos finished. Percy's chest heaved as he breathed deeply. Thanos could see the anger in his face, and it amused him, which just made Percy all the angrier. Only Steve's warning glance kept him from charging.

Thanos stood up, picking up his huge sword from the ground. "I thought by eliminating half of all life, the other half would thrive."

Thor made a little noise between a sob and a roar. Thanos took no notice. "But you've shown me, that's impossible." He continued. "As long as there are those left to remember _what was_, there will always be those that are unable to accept what _can be_. They will resist."

"Yep, we're all kinds of stubborn." Tony quipped, with strain evident in his voice. Percy had the urge to roll his eyes. Tony could never resist joking to break the tension, even when an all-powerful alien is about to murder you and your friends… again.

"I'm thankful." Thanos put on his helmet. Percy wondered internally why they were allowing him to get fitted for war. "Because now I know what I must do." An ominous feeling rose in Percy's chest.

"I will shred this universe down to the last atom. And, with the stones you have collected for me, create a new one. Teeming with life, and knowing not what it has lost but only what it has been given. A grateful universe."

"Born out of blood." Steve remarked.

"They'll never know it." Thanos said, smirking. "Because you won't be alive to tell them.

Percy couldn't stand it anymore. With a guttural roar, he charged Thanos. Tony, Steve, Thor, and Nico were following right behind him.

Percy vaulted off his sword while Thanos was distracted fighting the rest of them. He used the momentum to kick off Thanos's back and flipped over his head. He prepared to stab Thanos in the chest when the Titan raised an enormous hand and merely swatted Percy away. He flew through the air and slammed into a rock.

Percy's head banged against his chest and he bit his tongue hard. He blinked blood out of his eyes. Probably a mild concussion. But he'd worry about that later, because they had bigger problems.

Much, _much, _bigger problems with a purple body and a huge chin.

Percy used the water in the ground to give him extra speed and energy and ran right back into the battle. He came from behind Thanos, slid under his legs and slashed at his ankles. Thanos saw this coming and slammed his foot down on Percy's leg.

"That'll leave a mark." Percy muttered. He came up standing despite the pain in his left leg. Nico was fighting like the wind, shadow travelling to different sides around Thanos. Eventually Thanos saw Nico coming and slammed the butt of his huge sword into Nico's gut. Nico doubled over, groaning.

"Okay, Thor." Tony said. "Hit me." Thor seemed to understand. He channeled lightning from the storm and slammed it into Tony, whose chest piece seemed to glow brighter. Tony shot lasers out of his chest, hands and back. Any normal human would be incinerated, but Thanos spun his sword and deflected it back.

Thor growled. He tossed Mjolnir up in the air and used Stormbreaker to hit it like a bat. Thanos pulled Tony in front of him and used him as a shield. As a result, Tony got a hammer in the chest, which propelled him into a tree. Tony's head lolled on to his chest and Percy resisted the urge to scream.

Steve tried to attack but was easily knocked away by the Mad Titan. Percy felt a wave roar in his ears. He could feel the water beneath him, roaring, longing to be free. Percy thrust up a hand, and a geyser of water blew up right underneath Thanos's feet, blowing him fifteen feet in the air.

Percy grunted in satisfaction, but his excitement was short lived. Thanos took the force into a roll with the grace of a much smaller person and came up standing.

"You're irking me." Thanos said, glaring at Percy. With the speed of a tiger, he his slammed his sword against Percy's chest and sent him flying into a rock for the second time that day. His head slammed into the rock and the pain made him black out for a second.

Thor yelled but his attack on Thanos was blocked with his sword. Thanos grabbed Thor by the neck and squeezed, while simultaneously punching him in the face. Percy tried to move his legs, to get up, to do _something, _but his body didn't seem to work. He could only watch helplessly as the mighty god of thunder was beaten to a crisp.

Thor struggled to reach out for Stormbreaker, but Thanos grabbed it before it came to him and started pushing it into his stomach. This finally gave Percy the strength to stand up. It was like a miracle; albeit a miracle that came back to kill you later.

He glanced around for a weapon. Riptide hadn't reappeared in his pocket yet. Mjolnir was sitting a couple feet away, but he didn't know if he was worthy or not. Only one way to find out. Percy started to run over to it, but someone got there first.

Mjolnir flew up and knocked Stormbreaker out of Thanos's grasp. It flew back into Steve's hand. Percy started to grin. He doubted any mortal had ever been worthy to wield the hammer, but Steve had already broken many records.

"I knew it!" Thor shouted.

Thanos kicked Thor to the ground and proceeded to battle Steve, who was dual wielding both his shield and Mjolnir. Steve charged at Thanos while swinging Mjolnir and hit Thanos in the face, knocking him down.

Steve threw his shield and the titan deflected it. Steve slammed Mjolnir on his shield creating a shockwave and knocking Thanos off his feet. Steve went on the offensive, throwing his shield at Thanos and quickly hitting it back at him with Mjolnir. He threw his arm up in the air and threw a channel of lightning at Thanos.

Thanos growled in anger and removed his helmet. He head-butted Steve in the head, who stumbled back. Percy, seeing that they were losing, ran in from behind Thanos. "Hey Steve! Pass!"

Steve glanced at Percy and threw the hammer through the air at him. Percy caught it and felt energy ripple through his body from the hammer.

_He was worthy._

He threw the hammer at Thanos, who was propelled backwards.

This gave Steve time to get back his senses. He grabbed his shield and threw it at Thanos over and over again. Thanos turned his attention to Percy. He was about to throw the hammer again when Thanos knocked it out of the air. Thanos stabbed Percy in the leg, and Percy fell.

Thanos destroyed Steve's shield with his double-bladed sword and knocked Steve over.

Percy and Steve staggeredly tried to get up.

Thanos stood above them, victorious. Percy was physically trembling with anger and pain.

"In all my years of conquest… violence, slaughter. It was never personal. But I'll tell you now… what I'm about to do to this annoying, stubborn little planet… I'm going to enjoy it. Very much."

Percy shouted some unprintable obscenities at Thanos, who merely laughed. He made a gesture with his hands, and what looked like his entire army came down from his ships. Millions of aliens. Millions of Outriders, millions of Chitauri, and of course, the children of Thanos.

Percy rose to his feet. If he was going to die, then he was going to die fighting. Fighting for a world that used to be.

Fighting for Annabeth.

Speaking of Annabeth…

"Percy."

He flinched but kept his attention on Thanos. Annabeth's voice came to him, but it was nothing different than what it had sounded like for the past five years. He wasn't about to get distracted now, though he knew very well that this was a battle that he was very unlikely to win.

"Percy! Styx, Leo, are you sure these things work?" Percy frowned and put a hand to his ear. It sounded like it was coming from his earbud, and he'd never heard her voice like this before, but that wasn't possible… was it? Next to him, Steve looked similarly confused.

"Percy, turn around."

She sounded so _real. _It wouldn't be too much of a risk to glance over his shoulder, would it? He turned slowly around…. And what he saw nearly made his heart stop.

Yellow sparks… the beginnings of one of Doctor Strange's portal. As he watched, it split into two portals, and one opened up to the Wakandan battlefield, where Thanos had snapped his fingers.

In shock, he watched as all around him, hundreds of portals were opening everywhere. He saw Thalia, leading the Hunters of Artemis into battle. He saw Camp Half-Blood, including all those dusted by the snap. Next to their portal was one leading into New Rome, led by Reyna. The entire army of the Twelfth Legion was there. The Wakandan Armies, as well as hundreds of wizards like Doctor Strange.

And finally…

Percy had hardly dared to look, just in case his eyes were deceiving him. What if this was just some amazing, terrible dream and he woke up in his bed?

But there she was.

Annabeth.

Their eyes met, grey locking into green. Percy may have yelled for joy. He may have burst into tears. He may have cried and screamed and thanked every god he had ever come to contact with (even the ones who'd tried to kill him, which admittedly were most of them).

Her grey eyes were sparkling with excitement. Her blond hair rested on her shoulder. Percy's jaw hung open, and he could barely look at her long enough.

All this happened in less than a second, and Percy ran towards at the same moment that she started running towards him. They embraced, and Percy decided right then and there that he would never let her go again.

He wanted to sob, bury his face in her shoulder and hold her to him forever and always. _Wise Girl._

But he knew that he couldn't. They still had a battle to win.

Steve, with a huge smile up his face, looked around at his army. "Avengers…"

Captain America glanced at Percy, who grinned and finished the line. "Assemble."

* * *

**A/N YES! Alright guys, we've got rather a lot of information to get through this time. Bear with me.**

**First, I had so much fun writing this chapter! I usually HATE writing action scenes, but I had a pretty good time writing this one! Please tell me any suggestions that you may have my writing style.**

**Second, I'm dedicating this chapter to DaughterofAthena223 as well. Your reviews MAKE MY ACTUAL MONTH. Whenever I'm depressed I look at them, and they make me feel happy. Thank you so much for your awesomeness!**

**Third, THE TYRANT'S TOMB IS OUT! Those of you who haven't read the Trials of Apollo, do so RIGHT NOW! I think it is the funniest series Rick has written so far. I loved the Tyrant's Tomb so much, but I won't do any spoilers. When you all have read it, tell me your thoughts!**

**Finally, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS! Please continue to do so, I read every single one of them and they make my day! I will do a shout out to ALL OF YOU now!**

**SonofTartarus666 (Here you go, sorry that I waited so long)  
.03 (thanks!)  
DaughterofAthena223 (Thanks so much! I hoped someone would like the symbolism. I love your reviews!)  
DaughterofAthena223 (Again, THANK YOU! I loved writing Percabeth scene. Please update your story too! I honestly loved it. You captured Annabeth's personality so well)  
Night lock117 (thanks! Please keep reviewing!)  
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The Sorrowful Deity  
the guy that loves all gunpla  
hellohowasyourday (yeah…)  
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Hisb (Yessir!)**


	17. First Casualty in a New War

**A/N Hello procrastination! *waves* How long will it be this time?**

**Sorry this chapter has been so long coming, guys. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Percy**

The battle started instantly. Both armies charged at each other, Thor with a very interesting battle cry. Percy's ADHD kicked in and he saw everything. He saw the Spider-Kid jumping with his metal arms out, he saw a Valkyrie on a white Pegasus soar overhead, he saw Camp Jupiter forming a _testudo _formation with Reyna flying on a new Pegasus. He saw all this and more as he too charged into battle.

Percy would have undoubtedly been run over by some sort of alien immediately, especially with Annabeth by his side.

Annabeth…

_By._

_His._

_Side._

It seemed too good to be true. It could have been some fantastic dream, but you don't almost get killed in dreams. Well… at least not in mortal dreams.

But it was all real: Leo proved this by bursting into flames and running down a couple Chitauri, yelling, "ALL THE LADIES LOVE LEO" and blasting them to cinders. Piper's knife flew past his cheek, stabbing in Outrider in the heart. She was quick as a viper, but in every passing moment scanning the battlefield for something… or possibly some_one_.

Percy felt an icy cold feeling take hold of his chest. No one had told Piper about Jason. He spared her a worried look and continued fighting like a lion. They didn't have time right now. Maybe if they got a spare moment…

Percy glanced at Annabeth. Her blond hair was tied up in a braid and it whipped around her as she fought. She threw her knife with such force that it sliced straight through one monster's head and into another.

She was beautiful when she killed things.

"Percy!" She shouted. Percy whipped around and sliced the head clean off of another monster sneaking up on him, and just in time.

"Pay attention, Seaweed Brain." She said with that smirk he loved.

"As long as you do, Wise Girl." Percy couldn't help a huge foolish grin spreading up his face. Everything about her was so amazing and so _right_, he almost wished that this moment would never end (even though they were in a battle where people were dying all the freaking time).

"Hey, you two!" Thalia did a front flip over a monster and shot them with an arrow. "No shenanigans! You guys can kiss all you want once we've pounded these idiots!"

"She's right." Annabeth said.

"About the kissing or the other stuff?"

She rolled her eyes. "Just get out there."

"Yes ma'am," said Percy. "Let's do this."

He sprinted towards the nearest enemy, an Outrider (which, to be honest, wasn't that hard to find) and slashed its neck. It roared and shook its head, as if it was a mere cut. It thrust out an arm and two others found its brother, fighting alongside it.

Percy nearly laughed. He rolled under one of their legs, buying himself two seconds of time, which was all he needed. He touched his index finger to the ground and three identical geysers of water shot up right under each of their groins, and smashing into three others in the process.

"Five down," Hazel ran over on Arion. "About five bazillion to go."

"Ah, we've beat worse things than this."

She appraised the chaos with a critical eye. "That's a matter of opinion." Then a Chitauri rushed them, and Hazel and Arion sprinted off. Arion neighed at the challenge.

_You want a piece of this horse, you alien *censored*._

Percy winced and laughed. That horse could cuss.

* * *

**Jason Grace  
Thanos's Ship  
Ten Minutes Earlier**

Jason had found the stereotypical ball in the prison cell.

It played back and forth to him with a monotonous _thunk, thunk, thunk. _He glanced at Nebula's empty cell. Gamora had returned from them, and the two left to find the gauntlet and make sure Thanos didn't get it. Nebula had promised that they would be back, but Jason was starting to suspect this was just an elaborate situation just to get rid of him.

He had watched the battle start. He watched Percy, Thor, Tony, Nico, Steve get their butts handed to them by Thanos, even without the Infinity Stones. But then all the Snapped had returned, including Piper.

He watched all this with a bird's eye view, getting increasingly frustrated that he could just sit here and do nothing. Finally he couldn't stand it anymore. He stood up and started prowling for any weak points in the cell.

There were no windows, and the electric bars certainly weren't going anywhere anytime soon. His sword was surely locked up somewhere else, and the best he could do with electricity was make the lights spark.

Jason looked at the electric bars again.

Hmm….

He hesitated, and then sent out his senses. They nearly exploded from feedback. There were so many electric sparks in the air it was a wonder that no one had gotten electrocuted. He supposed that Nebula wouldn't have cared, being half a machine herself. But as for Jason…

He took some of the sparks into his hands. They started glowing, but it wasn't uncomfortable. They were a bit warm, sure, but not uncomfortable. He took some more. And more. His hands got annoyingly hot, but he couldn't stop now. There was still electricity.

He took the last bit, and the electricity felt as if it was sizzling into his veins. Better stop unless he wanted to get some premature cancer. He brought up his hands and launched all the electricity he had gathered into the corner of the room. Likely launching it at the bars would just make them stronger.

A ball of glowing electricity came out of his hands and hit the wall, blowing up the entire thing and giving him ample room to get out. He stared at his hands.

Well, that was new.

Maybe Jupiter was giving him some extra powers. Jason sent a silent prayer to his father and picked his way out of the wreckage.

* * *

There weren't many guards, and the cells next to him were empty. Probably Thanos would just kill his prisoners just to be safe. Jason wished he had Hazel to summon his sword, but at the moment he would just have to be stealthy.

He wondered where the doors were. It wouldn't do the Avengers much good if he just spent the entire battle wandering the corridors. After three Outriders, two Chitauri, and one exploding purple core (don't ask) he found the docking bay.

He took out the three guards by the doors and held the last one in a choke hold. "Where are the prisoners's weapons?" He hissed in his ears. The man had green skin and struggled to breathe. Jason relinquished his hold slightly. The man gasped for air.

"Maw won't—"

"Don't worry about Maw right now." Jason growled. "Worry about me, who's about to crack your neck in half." Jason was bluffing, obviously. The man looked as if he had been forced into working for Thanos, but he looked like he could be frightened.

"Answer me!"

The green man swallowed with difficulty. "Third left, fifth corridor, second door on the right. Don't kill me!"

"How do I get out of this place?"

"The—the windows are made of Iridium, but if you generated the right amount of heat you could blast through. I'm so dead." He muttered the last part.

Jason dropped the man and sprinted down the fifth corridor, took three lefts, and kicked open the second door on the right.

The security was awful. Either Thanos was so confident in his prison cells that he didn't bother to lock the doors, or all the fighters were battling the Avengers. Jason assumed the latter as he took in the many weapons in the store.

There were alien blasters, knives, swords, and weapons of all kinds. Jason sifted through the weapons (he would only need his) until he saw the telltale sparkle of Imperial Gold. He also found a steel sword that looked similar to his. It wasn't as balanced as he would prefer, but it would have to do.

Jason closed the door, looked around warily, and sprinted back up to the station. The man was coughing where he left him.

Jason wished he could do more for the guy, but what he was trying to do would (hopefully) help them all. There were three tinted windows on each wall. Jason took the biggest one. He didn't worry about getting down, because he could just fly.

He looked over at the green skinned alien. "Anything that could generate heat?" He asked. The man looked at him warily.

"I have a sword now." Jason said, a tad unnecessarily. "I could incapitate you much easier now."

The man winced. "There's an engine under there." He gestured to the command center. "Green button pops it open. We only use it for maintenance checks."

Jason did as instructed and lugged the engine out of the container. It was surprisingly large; weren't aliens supposed to have a lot better tech than them? He shook the ADHD out of his head. He had a job to do.

He used his sword to cut open the iron plating. A plan started to form in his mind.

He dragged the engine closer to the window, threw it up in the air, and shot a bolt of lightning into the center of it. It exploded, taking the window down with it. Jason was thrown into a wall, but jumped up, virtually unscathed. There was a smoking hole that wasn't big enough for, say, Cap to crawl through, but just enough for Jason to get by.

He jumped through the window and started falling.

As always, it took a second for him to get his bearings. He felt the wind rush by his ears and used it to control his descent. His blond hair rippling in the breeze, he soared towards Piper. He was about fifty feet away from the ground when he was suddenly yanked away.

Jason jerked around, looking for his attacker. Ebony Maw was floating on a bunch of dirt and beckoned Jason to come closer. He did, helpless as a rag doll in the telekinesis's grasp.

"Squidward." Jason struggled fruitlessly. "We meet again."

The alien ignored him. "Sire," said Ebony Maw into his communicator. "I have captured the boy."

Jason was close enough to hear Thanos's ominous response. "Good. Bring him to me. I have the other in my sights."

Jason kicked alien in the face, which barely made Maw flinch. He curled his fingers and Jason's body tightened. Ebony Maw leisurely flew over to Thanos, who was waiting with a smile on his face that couldn't mean anything good.

* * *

**Percy Jackson  
Battlefield  
Five Minutes Earlier**

Percy admitted that he was starting to get ticked off when the huge alien stepped on his face.

Percy recognized him from the battle when the Children of Thanos first came to earth. One guy had called him Cull Obsidian.

"Can I call you Cull?" Percy called up as he pushed off from the water in the ground to get up to his height. Cull roared and smashed him into the dirt.

"That's a no." Percy muttered as he peeled himself off the ground. Cull raised his huge hammer and smashed it down near Percy, but Percy rolled out of the way and pushed himself up. He was about to stab the monster in the foot when he heard a battle cry right behind him and was pushed out of the way as a cyclops barreled Cull over.

"PERCY NEEDS HELP!" Tyson the Cyclops turned around and grinned at Percy. "Brother!"

He crushed Percy in a hug. Percy blinked away black spots as he stared at the Cyclops. "T-Tyson?"

"Yes!" Tyson said, proud of himself. "Haven't seen you in…" He blinked and counted on his fingers. "Years! Where were you?"

"Uh… busy." Percy stared at Tyson as if he hadn't seen anything like him before. Tyson's smile reappeared on his face.

"Good! Let us go fight monsters!"

"Alright, big guy." Percy grinned and was too happy to register Cull Obsidian's fists sliding out of nowhere and into Tyson's head and ribs. Tyson fell over.

"Tyson!"

Percy looked at him, aghast. He glared at the giant. "You want a piece of this, _stultus_?" He yelled. "Bring it on!"

A newfound strength coursing in his veins, Percy leaped up and drove his sword into the giant's ear. Cull roared, red blood spilling out of the wound. Percy didn't stop there. He jumped down and slashed off the giant's leg. Cull teetered, and then fell.

Percy didn't check to make sure the monster was dead. He rushed to Tyson's side and felt his pulse. It was flickering.

"Tyson! Don't be dead. Please don't be dead…" Tyson's eyes flickered open. Percy nearly passed out from relief.

"Hey, big guy. Don't die on me. Please…" Tyson's eyes looked glassy.

"Percy…" He tried to sit up but fell over. "Am dying?"

"No, no, don't talk like that. Here…" He looked around. "Medic! Anyone?"

Like a blessing from the gods, Will Solace sprinted over to them. "Percy! What's… oh." He stared at Tyson, and the pity on his face was nearly too much for him.

"You can heal him, right?"

Will hesitated. "Percy, nectar and ambrosia wasn't meant for, well, monsters. He's already—"

"_Just try it!" _Percy sounded hysterical even to himself. He wasn't about to lose someone else, but Tyson looked really bad.

Will looked like he was going to protest, but pulled a square of ambrosia in half and put it in Tyson's mouth. Tyson choked and started steaming.

"Tyson, NO!"

Percy shook him. Tyson croaked out one last word. "Brother…"

He lay still.

"He's not dead." Percy repeated. "He's not dead, he can't be dead." Will leaned forward and felt his pulse again.

He looked up and shook his head sadly at Percy. He stared at Will, and Percy bowed his head over Tyson's body. It was still warm.

"If it makes you feel any better," Will said hesitantly. "He would have died without the ambrosia."

Percy shook his head and stood up. A green shimmering trident appeared over Tyson's head, just like the one when he had been claimed. The trident turned black and disappeared. A hole dug itself under Tyson's body and he sunk to the bottom. Dirt refilled it and was smooth. A paper appeared on top of it.

Percy picked it up and began to read the curly handwritten he knew:

_Brace yourself. This will not be the last._

It wasn't signed, but it smelled like an ocean breeze.

Percy's eyes burned and he ripped the paper in half.

"Thanos is going to die for that."

* * *

**A/N Yeah….**

**Sorry.**

**Thanks for all of your reviews! You prompted me to keep updating. Really sorry for such a long wait, it's been… a crazy last couple weeks. But we won't get into that, because you don't read my stories for my dramatics!**

**Oh, and to my fellow aspiring writers! I found this short book called **_**Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly **_**by Gale Carson Levine, and it helped me a ton with my writing! If anyone is looking to write an actual book, I encourage you to check it out!**

**Really wanna see your thoughts, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! Also, has anyone listened to the Lightning Thief Musical? It's amazing I loved it. It's not anything like the movie, it actually follows the books! I highly recommend you listen/watch it, the soundtrack is on Spotify.**

**Anyways, please review! Sorry if this chapter was a bit rushed, and we didn't get much Percabeth this time. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of Percabeth soon.**

**Next chapter: Percy gets his Lightbulb moment, and the last death was not the last… *Evil cackle***

* * *

**Shout out to reviewers:**

**the guy that loves all gunpla (Thanks!)  
SonOfTartarus666 (Thanks so much! Glad to know I'm not alone on that front. I HATE writer's block)  
Tiaqua Neptune (Thanks! Yeah, he's on my hit list too, UNLESS he apologizes)  
MasterMike000 (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I'm so grateful that you talked to him/her about that. Please continue to review!)  
The Sorrowful Deity (Yeah, those darn gods. Apollo'll probably write **_**How Apollo Saved the World from Thanos **_**or something like that, I dunno)  
Game-Watch (LOL, seriously, at least Jupiter helped Jason a bit)  
rb677112  
DaughterofAthena223 (THANK YOU! You have no idea how much your reviews mean to me, again, they make my entire, like, time until I update! I recommend you listen to The Lightning Thief Musical)  
NinjaFang1331  
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Guest (thank you! I'm glad my stories are good enough to re-read)  
Guest (Heck yeah man/woman)  
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Guest  
Hisb  
Guest (his ACCOUNT?! Really?!)  
Hisb  
**


	18. You Can Rest Now

**Chapter 18: You Can Rest Now**

* * *

**Percy**

"Cap, what do you want me to do with this thing?" Percy, bizarrely, had ended up with the Infinity Gauntlet in his possession. To say it was making him a target was a Porphyrion-sized understatement.

Percy vaulted off a monster's head and used the water in the ground to give him some more air time. He sliced off a Chitauri's head and used it as a bowling ball to hit some enemies out of the way. He instantly wiped his hand on his pants which didn't help much since they were already covered in monster guts.

_Monster guts…_

Something Tyson would probably say—Percy instantly regretted thinking that thought.

"Get those stones as far away as possible!" Cap said in his earbud through gritted teeth.

"No!" Bruce argued. "We need to get them back from where they came from."

"Could be a problem." Nico came through, slightly out of breath.

"Yeah,"—Tony called Thanos a name that can't be repeated in print—"destroyed the Quantum Tunnel."

"Language!"

"Gimme a break, Rogers—"

"Hold on," said Scott confidently, breaking into Tony and Steve's bickering. "That wasn't our only time machine."

Percy rolled his eyes. "We don't have a lot of time for hinting, Scott. I'm barely staying alive—not that that's a huge adjustment." He added resentfully. Luckily, Steve spoke up for him.

"Anybody see an ugly brown van up there?"

"Yes!" A feminine voice came in of whom Percy hadn't heard before. He had a hunch that it was the girl he'd seen flying on a white Pegasus.

"But you're not going to like where it's parked." She admitted.

"How long do you need to get that thing working?" Cap asked.

"Maybe ten minutes." Scott said.

"Get it started. We'll get the stones to you."

Another female voice joined the fray. "We're on it, Cap."

He charged through the battlefield, and each stroke with his sword was for Tyson. He took out his rage and his grief on the monsters that had invaded his home. He hadn't felt this good in years—in a very literal sense.

But even a Son of Poseidon got tired, and Percy felt this more keenly the longer he battled. He ran by the Black Panther, who yelled back at him,

"Percy!"

Percy spared him a glance.

"Give it to me."

Without another look, Percy tossed it to T'Challa, and he instantly felt the attacks lessen slightly.

Across the field he saw Wanda Maximoff attacking Thanos. He felt cheered by the sight—until Thanos said something and blue missiles started hitting left and right.

One struck Percy on the arm before he had enough time to register what they were and they knocked him to the ground.

It didn't look like the missiles were designed to kill, but they hurt pretty darn bad. Percy looked at his arm. It was covered in an array of blisters and burns.

"Ow." Percy muttered. He searched in his pocket for ambrosia. He had none.

"Well, crap."

He'd have to grin and bear it, as the old saying went, but Percy seriously doubted that he would be grinning very soon, even if they did win.

At least it wasn't his sword arm, he thought with grim satisfaction.

"Uh, is anyone else seeing this?" Pepper said.

Percy looked around. The missiles had burst through the dam and the water was spilling out.

"We've got ourselves a dam problem." Percy smiled. He thought he heard Thalia snickering in his earpiece, but he couldn't be sure.

"What?"

"Nothing. Inside joke. I got it."

Percy whistled—a high, long taxi cab whistle that could've competed with Will Solace. A black Pegasus soared over to him.

_Hey boss! Gosh, this stuff is really heating up now, huh?_

"I need you to get me to that dam."

_Yessir!_

Blackjack zoomed over to the dam as water was starting to flood out. Thousands of gallons were pouring out and would probably soon overwhelm their forces, if the blue missiles wouldn't do that first.

Percy thrust out his hands in a pushing gesture. The water slowed. He pushed more forcefully. The water stopped, as if there was a wall there. But that wasn't enough, and Percy couldn't hold it there forever. He gritted his teeth and thrust up.

The entire dam floated six inches above the ground. Percy had never done something this hardcore before. Sweat poured down his face. He had to get this stuff off his hands or his control would break. He shoved it away from him and a tidal wave slammed onto Thanos's reinforcements that were pouring out of his ship.

Percy sighed in relief.

_That was BA, boss!_

Percy chuckled. "Thanks buddy." He looked around, sensing something had changed. The blue missiles had stopped firing. They were turning inwards. He frowned. Every single one of them fired on the inside of the ship, which blew up with a huge bang. Percy saw a little dot falling out of the ship.

A white Pegasus flew over and caught the person who was falling, and Percy breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to continue fighting when Hazel rushed over to him on Arion.

"Percy!" Hazel looked terrified. "Where's Frank?"

* * *

**Frank  
Ten minutes earlier**

Blue missiles were flying all around them. They were knocking those both on their side and Thanos's side to the ground, but unfortunately, the monsters seemed to be recovering faster. Some of Doctor Strange's wizards put up shields, protecting those on their sides, but it barely did them any good. Some of the missiles shattered through the shields completely.

Frank glanced up at the ship. He looked at those who were being shot down all around him. He looked up at the ship again. He realized that this might be how they were defeated, unless someone stopped the ammunitions. He couldn't see how someone could do that unless they got inside the ship to stop the attacks.

And to do that…

He looked across the battlefield and saw a red ball of flame roasting monsters.

Perfect.

Percy turned into a giant eagle, flew across the field, and picked up Leo. "Hey—whoa!"

Leo extinguished his flame. "What the Hades are you doing?!"

Frank, being an eagle, couldn't answer. He flew up to the ship, literally dodging bullets. When he made it to the ship, it was virtually unguarded; Thanos must have sent his entire army down. Obviously he didn't think that anyone would make it up here.

Frank turned back to a human.

"Can someone explain to me what's going on?" Leo said as he lit and extinguished a flame on his finger repeatedly.

Frank explained the plan to Leo. "Find where those missiles are being powered." Leo leaned back against the ship, listening intently.

"Northwest side of the ship." He muttered. "Three lefts… Three _rights. _Got it."

Leo sprinted towards the northwest side of the ship with Frank following close behind. They barreled into the room. The Chitauri guarding it stared at them. Frank changed into a gorilla and backhanded the guard so hard he flew clear across the room and slammed into a wall.

Frank changed back and looked at Leo. "How do we destroy these things?"

Leo laid a hand against one of the missiles. "If we destroy the power source the ship will blow up, but the encasing is made of Solidium, which is basically space's vibranium. We won't be getting through there any time soon. The only thing that can break through is the energy being shot from the missiles."

Frank growled in frustration and spared a glance out the window. The steady barrage was not faltering.

"But," Leo added. "They're programmed to train themselves onto the biggest threat. If we can harness that somehow…"

And just like that, a plan, fully formed, burst into Frank's head, like Minerva into Jupiter's. Frank looked at Leo, mind racing. "Um, big guy?" Leo stared at Frank. "You got the look that I had while I was planning my Physician's Cure thing, and I don't like that look on anyone else."

Frank quickly explained his plan to Leo, whose nose burst into flame.

"No. No, no, no, no, _no_." Leo patted out his flame and glared at Frank. "No way, Zhang. Hazel will probably mow me down with her magic horse if she finds out that I let you do it."

"There's no other way." Frank said. He couldn't pretend that he was looking forward to what he had to do, but sometimes you had to make a sacrifice.

Leo opened his mouth to continue protesting. "Leo," Frank said gently. "I let you do it. Shouldn't you let me?"

Leo's stared down at his hands. He shook his head and walked over to stand by Frank. Leo threw his arms around him and retracted quickly. Frank stiffened. He wasn't used to such a large show of affection from Leo.

"But if your magic fire stick doesn't burn, there's a chance, right?" Leo said hopefully.

Frank knew that there was no chance, but he didn't speak that thought aloud. If that was what Leo had to hold on to to let Frank do this, he would let Leo believe whatever he wanted. Frank nodded.

"Program the missile launchers to aim at the inside of the ship when there's a larger threat."

Leo quickly found the motherboard and started muttering, but it only took two minutes. "Done." He said, his voice cracking. "Let's get operation Blow-Up-the-Death-Star over with."

Frank took a deep breath. "Okay." His pulse was racing. He couldn't do this. This was crazy. He was going to _die. _Frank steeled his nerves and met Leo's eyes. "When they start shooting, _get out._ There's no point if both of us stay in here."

Leo nodded, rubbing the heel of his palm against his chest.

Frank turned into a dragon. Luckily there was room enough in the room for him to be full grown. Frank started breathing fire and roaring. He stomped around and made a big dramatic roar. The missiles stopped shooting.

Frank spared a glance at Leo, who wasn't looking at him, but made a single nod.

Frank made a fire ball and blew it at the side of the ship, which blew up. It must've been a gas tank, because it made one heck of an explosion.

He blew fire around the entire room and smashed his front leg into a wall. Alarms started blaring. Ominously, every single missile swiveled around to stare at him. A bubble of fear burst into his chest, but he didn't hesitate. He kept roaring and blowing flames.

That was when the missiles started firing at him. It hit him in the wing, but his scales protected him, so he didn't get hurt much.

He tried to dodge the missiles so that they would smash into the energy core, which barely succeeded. The missiles started to hurt. There was only so many hits that a dragon could take. Frank roared in defiance and lifted off the ground. It didn't do much. The missiles only readjusted their aim.

Frank touched back down on the ground. It wouldn't do any good if he died without blowing up the ship. The missiles knocked him down. They skimmed over his chest and into the reactor, which started bubbling.

Only a few more now, Frank thought through the agony. A missile hit him in the face. Frank screwed up his eyes in pain. One of the missiles hit the spot where he could feel his firewood. The pouch might have been flame proof, but these things were made of a different stuff entirely. He could feel his wood catch fire.

Somehow Frank felt calmer. No way out of it now.

Frank looked at Leo, and for the first time Frank saw true fear in Leo's eyes. "GO!" Frank managed to yell. Leo backed away reluctantly.

Just like last time his wood had caught on fire, Frank saw his life flash before his eyes. He saw his friends turning into dust before his eyes, he saw himself reuniting with Hazel. He saw how beautiful Hazel looked on their wedding day. She would get through this, Frank thought. She was strong, much stronger than most people gave her credit for. Frank's only regret was he would never be able to see Emily grow up.

Frank changed back into human and felt a tiny nub left of the stick. It was still burning, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The missiles kept firing.

'_You'll die holding that stick in your hands, watching it burn.'_

Iris's prophecy had finally come true.

The core exploded, and the last thing Frank saw were blue flames.

* * *

**Percy  
Present Time**

"Where's Frank?" Hazel asked.

"I—I don't know." Percy looked around dazedly. Something was wrong. How did that ship get blown up?

The girl on the white Pegasus flew by and dropped Leo down. "Might wanna get him a medic." She said, looking at him. "Maybe heatstroke or something."

That instant was when Percy knew something was wrong, because Leo would never get heatstroke—something else was going on.

Leo was pacing around and rubbing his arms and legs furiously.

"Leo." Percy furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you okay?"

Leo did nothing.

"Leo!" Percy grabbed him. "What happened?"

Leo met Percy's eyes, and he looked wild and desolate. "Frank… I, he just—"

Hazel dismounted Arion. Tears were already shimmering in her eyes, but her back straightened. "Leo. What happened."

Her voice was flat, monotonous.

Leo, his voice shaking, told them what happened.

Hazel crumpled to the floor. Little coins surfaced across the whole battlefield. With one cry of anguish, she expelled her feelings. She drew her legs up to her chest and rocked, sobbing. Percy stood still, his eyes staring into nothing.

Finally Hazel rose. Arion trotted over to her and nickered. She climbed onto his back and rode away, just one flash of light.

A strange buzzing filled Percy's ears. Everything seemed to have fallen silent, but he knew that the battle was still going on. Why was it still happening? Everyone should stop and the war should end, because the warrior, the father, the friend, the _hero…. _Frank Zhang had died.

* * *

**A/N BWAAAAhahahahahahahahahahaa! Yep, we're ending this chapter with a death too. You're welcome! As for next chapter, here is your hint: chapters 17, 18, 19's endings end with the same things that HP books 5,6,7 end with. That's all!**

**Did anyone notice the two classic jokes I slipped in there? One for each fandom, hehe.**

**Thanks to my reviewers! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE KEEP GOING! I read every single one and they make my day. Shout out:**

**Game-Watch  
Guest (Thank you so much! That means a lot, because my goal with my writing is that if it's not helping someone in some way, there's no point to it)  
Gottalovebooks14  
NinjaFang1331  
DaughterofAthena223 (your intuition is always right on target, my friend)  
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the guy that loves all gunpla  
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Guest  
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Guest  
TimeBlade  
**


	19. Part of the Journey is the End

**A/N Please no cussing in your reviews?**

* * *

**Chapter 19: Part of the Journey is the End**

* * *

**Percy**

Percy started to get ticked off when Squidward the Telekinetic decided to make an appearance.

Percy had been slaughtering legions of aliens, you know, minding his own business, when down swooped an alien whose face looked like a botched plastic surgery consumer. Percy remembered when all this crap had started he had been one of the first to appear.

"_He means get lost, Squidward!"_ Percy had to grin when he remembered Tony's apt nickname. His smile faded when he remembered Frank, Tyson, and Natasha…

Percy shook his head out of the black cloud. He could mourn properly when this was over. Squidward used his telekinetic powers to pick Percy right off the ground like a blade of grass, powerless to resist.

"Where are you taking me?!" He yelled. From his height, he could almost see the whole battlefield. He could see Reyna and Hazel struggling to take control of the legion, who were scattering under a combined onslaught. Everywhere he looked, his comrades were falling.

Squidward didn't bother to respond. Instead he spoke in his a space-magic walkie-talkie: "I have captured him, Sire."

_Uh-oh. _Not good. He approached Thanos, who was sitting on a rock. The fighting created a large dome around him.

"_PERSEUS JACKSON." _Percy flinched as Squidward brought him closer to Thanos. Something was up—Thanos wouldn't go to all this trouble just to kill him personally.

He got confirmation of this fact when he landed on the ground. Percy sucked in his breath.

Thanos's sword was glued to Jason Grace's neck.

This was shocking for a number of reasons: one, Jason was alive. Percy had secretly toyed with this idea ever since he had known for certain that Nebula was a traitor. But it really hit him hard at that moment.

Two, because if Thanos had captured Jason for this amount of time, why hadn't he killed him by then? Percy started to get a very bad feeling.

"Let. Him. Go." Percy said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. Thanos only smiled.

"I have come to bargain, Son of Poseidon." Seeing Percy's surprised expression, Thanos smirked. "Yes, I am aware of your heritage. I believe you know of the Titan Kronos?"

Percy had to work to keep his jaw open. He was not about to lose his cool in front of this idiot.

HE continued, "We—that is to say, my planet, Titan—are a branch off of the species you know as Titans. An ancestor of mine, Proditores*, fell in love with a mortal. He was exiled and all records of him were erased. Lord Kronos knew not where he was sending him, but that it was far away.

"He landed on a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy and the Titan bloodline was greatly diluted. And we no longer have the power of a god. But, as I have previously demonstrated, we are formidable foes."

Percy was very tempted to scream, _I DON'T CARE,_ but he doubted that would be good for Jason's health.

"But look at me, spouting family history. As for why I am telling you this, Kronos is an ancestor of mine. Being the Lord of Time, it was quite is for me to link our minds and tell him to spare you, for I had other plans." Thanos grinned nastily in response to Percy's death glare.

"Which comes to bargaining. I know you share unofficial generalship of this army, along with Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. Tell your armies to stand down, and I will spare you in the new universe I shall create."

"And if I don't?"

"If and when I utterly destroy _the Avengers, _I'll kill your friend right now. But, as I said, if you do not," Thanos paused, watching Percy's face. "You will be spared."

Percy was frozen, the color drained from his face. Here he was, standing in front of his worst enemy, presented with his fatal flaw, but suddenly greater and more terrible than he had ever thought it could be.

Save a friend, or save the world.

"You, Jason, the girl, all of you. In the new universe I create. You wouldn't remember the pain, I swear."

_You wouldn't remember the pain._

The words echoed in Percy's head. He wouldn't remember the suffering. Him and Annabeth in a perfect universe.

Suddenly Janus flashed into view. He was grinning, tossing a key back and forth into each hand. Just like Percy had seen him to do Daedalus.

Daedalus had chosen wrong.

How would Percy choose?

Thanos didn't notice Janus. At least, he didn't glance in his direction.

_Live in a perfect universe._

And for one moment, or two, or even three, Percy was tempted.

Then he looked at Jason.

Their eyes locked.

For a brief, fleeting second, Percy saw Beckendorf in the Princess Andromeda. When he was resigned to his fate.

Jason had the same hardened, final look on his face. A silent understanding passed through the two heroes, and at that instant, they understood each other perfectly.

_It's okay, _Jason seemed to say. _It'll be fine._

Percy felt like he was in the Styx again, every atom in his body scattered to the winds. Hundreds of memories flashed in his head.

_Your fatal flaw is loyalty.  
How has he manipulated you?  
To save a friend, you would destroy the world.  
He's too loyal to his friends.  
A single choice shall end his days.  
The world to preserve or raze._

Suddenly Percy realized something. Without his pain, who would he be? Right now, where would he have been in his life?

He never would have met Annabeth or the rest of the seven. Everything that made his life worth living was, one way or another, created by his sorrows.

He thought of Annabeth.

He thought of Beckendorf.

He thought of Jason, Leo, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Nico, Thalia, his mother, Paul, Estelle, Tony, Steve…

And he knew what he had to do.

He looked Thanos straight in the eye.

"No."

* * *

For a moment, Percy could see surprise in those cold eyes. Percy looked at Jason again. Jason closed his eyes and nodded.

_Make it count._

"So be it." Thanos snarled, and slashed off Jason's head. Percy fell to the ground along with Jason. There would be no bringing him back.

"_Percy!"_

A shudder ran through Squidward's body. Percy was released from the invisible force that was holding him. Squidward fell back with a final look of shock. And sticking out from his chest was a steel knife.

Annabeth stood there, a look of stormy rage on her grey eyes.

"Come on!"

Percy was too much in shock to move. He looked at Jason, and Thanos, and back at Annabeth. Tears were glittering in her eyes, and from her expression, Percy knew that she had seen what was important.

She grabbed his arm a Pegasus came out of nowhere. The woman with riding it grabbed the two of them and put them on the white Pegasus's back.

"Annabeth…"

"I know, Percy. _Gods of Olympus, _Percy, I know."

Halfway across the field, a hundred yards away, Percy heard a tortured scream that sounded eerily familiar. It was Piper.

* * *

Nico di Angelo felt a familiar buzzing in his ears.

* * *

Reyna Ramirez-Arelleno felt a pang in her heart as she sensed another comrade's death. Tears silently fell, but she used her grief to fight harder.

* * *

Thunder shook the air and lightning flashed, sizzling at the exact spot that Jason's body now laid. Jupiter's tribute.

All those who could feel it and all those who cared mourned for the death of Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter, Hero of Olympus, and Avenger.

* * *

**Annabeth  
Moments Earlier**

It was a battle to the death, and Annabeth was feeling pretty darn good.

Of course, it felt to her that she had been plunged into one battle against Thanos and into another. She had to keep reminding herself that it was five years later.

At least that was a problem when she was by herself.

When she was fighting with Percy, the difference was sadly obvious. He had a gaunt appearance and a notable weight loss. It almost looked like he had aged seven years instead of five. The grey streak in his hair was back.

Annabeth had felt unrealistic guilt that her disappearance had done that to him. She wondered, unbidden, what she would have done if their roles had been reversed. Would she have thrown herself into her work or gone into hiding? Would she have been strong for her friends or let her defenses fall?

She wasn't sure she wanted the answers to those questions.

So, every stroke of her blade, every pray to the gods, she thought, _this is for Percy. _She hoped that if they could somehow get out of this freak show, than his healing process would start.

But things were looking gloomy right then. What were they supposed to do, destroy every monster? Obviously that wouldn't work. Annabeth's strategic sense told her that that would never happen. No, they would have to find another way, but for once, she had no ideas.

Suddenly the sky brightened. A bright light of thundering energy slammed down into the ground. A woman stood there in a red, blue, and yellow costume with a star in the middle of it. She had a short, pageboy haircut, and her blue eyes were hard.

"About time you got here!" Annabeth heard in her earpiece. Was it the raccoon? She thought that it was.

Suddenly a boy around fifteen years old fell out of the sky with a thump. A red spider mask disintegrated revealing a shy face with brown eyes. The woman with all the bright energy landed right next to them.

Annabeth and the woman looked at each other. She felt a slight kinship echo between them at that moment. They were both warriors. They both had been fighting for a better world as long as they could remember.

The moment was broken when the boy looked up at them both.

"H-hi I'm P-Peter P-Parker." He was clutching the Infinity Gauntlet to his chest as if it was a lifeboat about to rescue him.

"Hey, Peter Parker." The blond-haired woman said with a slight smile on her face. "You got something for me?"

Peter Parker shakily got up and handed the Infinity Gauntlet to her. Annabeth turned around and saw all of Thanos's armies amassing to fight the woman. Annabeth should have been afraid. True, she felt a twinge of fear. But she also felt a strange comforting feeling, as if her mother had touched her and said that everything was going to be fine.

"Don't know how you're going to get through all of that." Peter Parker said.

A voice behind spoke up. "Don't worry." It was Piper. Annabeth reached her hand behind her and Piper squeezed it.

"She's got help."

Thalia was behind her as well. In fact, the entire Hunters of Artemis were in stance. Reyna, her purple cloak billowing. A pink haired girl with a giant crossbow whom Annabeth didn't recognize. Clarisse. A green skinned woman and a girl with antennae sprouting out of her head. Okoye and Nebula. A girl on a white Pegasus. Shuri, with two blasters and a rare serious look on her face. A woman materialized out of the ground who was wearing a suit with wings. Pepper Potts flew down and landed next to them.

Annabeth didn't even have time to wonder how they had all gotten there at the same time because with a roar, they all charged.

Annabeth branched out on the side and had a shock: a mop of familiar black hair. Percy was being held by Thanos's right hand—man? Alien? Annabeth ran in just in time to hear Thanos say, "So be it." And a head get lopped off that had a very familiar face on it.

_No!_

Annabeth resisted the urge to yell and scream and through herself to the ground. Instead she crept closer to the alien holding Percy. She aimed and threw her steel knife right into the alien's back. He stiffened and dropped Percy. Thanos had already turned away but whipped around again.

"Percy, come on!"

Annabeth grabbed Percy by the arm—who was obviously still shell-shocked—and with good timing, the woman on the white Pegasus swooped down and picked them up.

The woman who was holding the Infinity Gauntlet blasted through Thanos's army like they were butter.

"Drop us down there!" Annabeth yelled, pointing to the ugly orange van. They would guard it just in case a Chitauri tried to destroy it.

The woman nodded, Annabeth and Percy slid off, and they took a familiar formation on both sides of the van.

Thanos saw the Gauntlet and tried to run towards the woman holding it, but Shuri and Pepper blasted him back. Thanos turned around and threw his double-bladed sword towards the van.

Percy and Annabeth dove out of the way just as the van exploded.

"How are we going to get the stones away?"

"I don't know!" A geyser erupted behind Percy and destroyed a couple monsters.

Tony flew out of nowhere, rushing by Annabeth and knocking her from the force of his thrusters. Tony slammed into Thanos's back but he smacked Iron Man away.

Thor arrived and attempted to pin Thanos down with Stormbreaker and Mjolnir, assisted by Steve.

"Come on!" Annabeth called to Percy and they both sprinted towards where they knew the final fight, for better or worse, was happening for the Infinity Gauntlet.

Thanos overpowered Steve and Thor and knocked them out. Annabeth swiped at Thanos's legs with her knife but he merely kicked her away.

* * *

**Percy**

When he saw Annabeth being kicked into the side of the battle, he got strange déjà vu from the battle at Wakanda, which was not a very good confidence booster for him at that exact moment.

He swiped up with his sword into Thanos's armpit and got a pretty good cut. Thanos roared and backhanded Percy across the face.

He felt searing pain and his nose go numb which suggested it was broken.

Carol Danvers—_where did she come from?—_flew down and punched at Thanos while he picked up the gauntlet. Thanos struggled to put it on, but when he did, Percy got the adrenaline rush he needed.

An earthquake rumbled the field, causing Thanos to fall over.

_Didn't know I could do that, _Percy thought, but wasn't about to complain.

Carol got up first and yanked Thanos's fingers apart when he was about to Snap again. Percy stabbed Thanos in the back. He shoulders arched but otherwise didn't react to a blow that would've felled most mortal men.

Carol started to pull the gauntlet off, a stormily determined look on her face. Thanos head-butted her and nothing happened. Probably recognizing that he wasn't going to win this without unorthodox tactics, Thanos plucked the Power Stone from the gauntlet and blasted her away.

Percy's cue.

He took over and braced his feet against the ground, pulling the gauntlet off. His muscles strained but he put his back into it and the Infinity Gauntlet started to come off. Before Percy knew what was happening, a large purple hand was heading for his face and he was knocked yards away into the back of Iron Man's metal legs.

Percy struggled to get up. Tony swooped into the air and took over on pulling at the gauntlet… or so it looked like.

Doctor Strange helped Percy up with a strange look of grief on his face. Percy tried to run back into the battle but Doctor Strange held him back.

"What are you doing?!" Percy shouted. He had to get back there; he had to avenge Jason, Frank, Tyson, and Natasha.

Strange merely shook his head sadly and tightened his grip.

Percy watched helplessly as Thanos raised his fingers. "I am inevitable." He said with a grin. He snapped his fingers, Percy cringed, but the affect he had been waiting for didn't come.

Thanos snapped again. Nothing.

Percy switched his attention to Tony, who… who now had the Infinity Stones. The gamma radiation gnawed at his right arm. With a sickening feeling, Percy knew that Tony was going to die.

"And I…. am… Iron Man."

_SNAP_

* * *

In the years to come, Percy could never describe what had happened after that fateful moment.

Doctor Strange released him. Everywhere their enemies were turning into dust, but Thanos was last so he could see that he was doomed.

Tony collapsed against the ground, and Annabeth and Percy ran towards him.

Tony Stark died in his wife's embrace.

They counted their dead.

Somehow, everyone made their way into the Avengers Compound. It was silent, when there should have been celebration. Happiness had come, but for now, the Avengers had to process what had happened.

Even the mightiest fall.

The heroes who should live forever die much too quickly, and the villains live much too long.

Annabeth was invited to see Tony's final message. It was only the immediate family who were allowed to see it. Percy didn't get hurt feelings. He doubted he would feel anything for a while.

* * *

"_Everybody wants a __happy ending, but… part of the journey is the end."_

_-Tony Stark_

* * *

***Latin for Betrayer.**

**A/N Did I get any crying? Sorry, but I thought that since two people died from Avengers it was only fair that at least two people died for the demigods. Sorry if this was rushed. **

**No, this story is NOT done. There will be an epilogue, and maybe some deleted scenes, or a special feature of like the gods getting out the flat screen TV when the battle starts. **

**I know a lot of you wanted Percy to SNAP but I could never get up the heart to kill Percy or Annabeth (permanently, anyway), that's one of the lines I would NEVER cross along with breaking up Percabeth.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE**

**Okay I'm done.**

**Anybody gonna get Disney+? I am, and it's time for a frickin Marvel Marathon baby! Shout out to reviewers:**

**NinjaFang1331  
DaugherofAthena223 (Yeah… #sorrynotsorry)  
The Sorrowful Deity (Dude I didn't even think of that)  
ScarletHazel11  
lautoro94  
Gottalovebooks14 (Welp, I hope your phone isn't broken)  
Guest (youuuuu'rrrreee welcome!)  
the guy that loves all gunpla  
HPPJMCU  
Guest  
Guest (thank you so much!)  
Crimson Elixir 713  
Tiaqua Neptune (thanks for not actually cursing at me (:)  
**


	20. Everybody Wants a Happy Ending

**Chapter 20: Epilogue or Everybody Wants a Happy Ending**

**Percy**

Percy couldn't remember being this nervous in his life.

He had taken Annabeth to a picnic in the Montauk beach, three months after the second—or was it the third—snap. They were all recovering from the events that had taken place, so Percy thought that he should cheer her up a bit.

The waves roared and crashed with a rushing sound against the sand. Wind whistled softly against their faces, and the golden light from the sun set made their faces glow. Annabeth's blond hair whipped around her. She was wearing a simple Camp Half-Blood T-Shirt and short shorts. Percy thought she had never looked more beautiful.

He swore to himself that he would never take for granted how lucky he was ever again.

They had continued dating immediately, but Percy didn't pretend that everything was the same. He had changed, and it would take a lot more than three months to get back to normal.

But _she _was there, and she hadn't changed one bit. He only needed to look at her to feel better, but occasionally feelings of grief and guilt pushed through. Annabeth squeezed his hand, and he got the feeling that she knew exactly what he was thinking of.

He forced a smile on his face, which honestly wasn't that hard.

They ate their sandwiches, talking and laughing. Dessert was, of course, blue chocolate chip cookies. Eventually silence fell. "Percy, this has been _so _sweet. Is there a particular reason for this sudden trip?" Annabeth said.

"Does a guy need a reason to take his girlfriend out?" Percy said, grinning, but he was actually terrified. His mom had assured him that he had nothing to worry about, but fears still needled him. What if she refused? How would he live with himself? He wasn't the same person whom she had kissed at the bottom of the lake. It seemed too good to be true for her to accept him the way he was now.

"Want to make a sand castle?" Percy blurted out. She was looking at him strangely, and he got the feeling that she was starting to guess the real reason he had invited her.

"Yes!" Annabeth started molding the sand. "Luckily it just rained, so the sand should be damp enough that we won't have to go in the ocean." Annabeth did most of the work, obviously. Percy was mostly the cheer-leading squad.

Annabeth completed her sand castle and it looked remarkably like the Disney Castle in Walt Disney World.

She looked up and caught him staring. "What?"

"Oh… nothing." Percy looked down and starting drawing an omega in the sand, getting up his courage.

He took a deep breath.

"Annabeth, I've been thinking…"

"About what?" She smiled.

"Well…" He went down on one knee. She stared at him, dawning comprehension in her eyes. "Oh, Percy…"

"Wise Girl, you know I suck at writing speeches, but I love you. I love you more than words can express. I know I've changed; I'm not the same person I used to be. But we've been through Tartarus and back together, and I've waited too long as it is. If you'll have me, I swear that I'll try to make you as happy as I am whenever I'm with you."

"Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?"

Annabeth wasn't usually an emotional person. She hadn't even cried when they went through Tartarus. But her grey eyes sparkled with tears.

He opened the black case that was holding her ring. Leo had made it for him, and it was a miracle he'd managed to keep a secret for this long. But it was beautiful.

The stone was a grey diamond but the ring itself was made out of celestial bronze so it would never break. She stood there, looking at him, not even glancing at the ring.

"Do I really have to say yes?" She pulled him up, and they kissed. An asteroid could have killed everyone on earth, and Percy wouldn't have noticed. "I love you." He murmured. She let out a noise between a sob and a laugh, and they kissed again.

They broke apart when they heard cheering. They both looked around, their eyes having identical looks of joy and tears.

Piper, Hazel, Nico, Thalia, Reyna, Nico, Leo holding a video camera. Piper and Hazel were cheering but they both had tears in their eyes. Nico nodded when he met Percy's eyes. Leo's hand exploded into flames, nearly melting the camera to crisps.

Reyna was clapping politely, not looking one ounce bitter about the love she never got. Thalia whooped.

Blue and grey fireworks went off in the distance, courtesy of Leo. Percy looked around and saw Poseidon behind them all, trying to blend in as a mortal in the background, but Percy couldn't mistake that loud shirt. Their eyes met and Poseidon smiled.

Annabeth herself found Athena, across the other side of the beach, as far away from Poseidon as possible. She almost feared what her look would be, but the goddess of wisdom, while not smiling, nodded at Annabeth.

"Did you plan this?" She asked Percy. He shook his head. "Of course not, I wanted to be alone. Leo must've told them. I can't say I'm surprised." He looked sheepish when he looked at her.

"Put on the ring!"

"Oh Percy, it's beautiful." Annabeth admired, noticing at once the ring in his hand. She slipped it on. It was a perfect fit.

More cheering. Percy looked around, wondering who else could possibly…

All the original Avengers… or what was left, anyway.

Steve Rogers, pushing himself on his wheelchair, but still managing to clap. Clint Barton, who sent an arrow into the air, which exploded in celebration. Bruce Banner, standing in the background to avoid crushing anyone. Thor, bellowing his congratulations.

Percy was beaming so much that he was worried the smile would break off his face. But then he remembered who wasn't there, and the glow faded. Annabeth looked at him, smiling sadly, obviously having the same thought process.

"They're here." She said softly. "We just can't see them."

"I know."

Eventually the cheering died down, replaced by a huge group hug. It started with Piper, who threw her arms around Annabeth. This time Leo's entire body exploded into flames, but he managed to keep it down for the hug. Nico wasn't normally a hug person, but he couldn't resist. Hazel, followed by Thalia and Reyna.

Clint, Thor, and finally Bruce, nearly cutting off the circulation flow of the people in the back. Percy now felt nothing but love. No more sorrow or pain, no more evil or death, just him, his friends, and his family.

And of course Annabeth.

* * *

Percy Jackson held Annabeth Chase's hands. They both looked amazing. A local priest stood above them, reading from his little book. The two looked at each other with love and excitement, but mostly downright _joy. _

"In trial and sickness…"

They both looked beautiful, of course, but it was the happiness in their faces that seemed to really beautify the soon-to-be married couple.

Annabeth wore a pure white dress with lace streaming down the sides and a veil behind her. Her blond hair fell in curls around her shoulders. Her blue eye shadow brought out the color of her eyes, which at the moment were the color of the sky. Percy was grinning in a greyish blue suit. His white tie was crooked, but neither of them cared.

The gods themselves had shown up for their wedding, but forced to sit in the back, much to the indignation of Aphrodite, who labored under the delusion that she had brought the couple together in the first place.

"Do you so swear to accompany each other till death do you part…"

In the middle were Poseidon and Athena, both as far away from the other as possible, but both happy that their children had found a perfect match. Then came Hera, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hades, Zeus, (not looking very happy, but Hera had forced him to come), Dionysus, Artemis, (Looking despite of herself like she was enjoying the wedding) Apollo, Ares (glowering in the direction of Percy, who couldn't care less) Demeter, and Hestia (sitting in front of all the gods due to being Percy's favorite godly aunt).

Then in the seats was Sally Jackson with tears streaming down her face, holding hands with Paul, who was beaming. Eight year old Estelle Blofis was grinning and whispering loudly to her mother, who quickly silenced her.

On the other side was Professor Fredrick Chase, next to his wife. Bobby and Matthew sat next to each other, squirming and poking each other.

Behind them were friends. Piper, Nico, Leo, Hazel, Thalia, and Reyna, followed by the rest of the Avengers, Clint, Thor, Bruce, and Steve, still old, but still happy for his friends' joy.

"Do you, Perseus Jackson, take Annabeth Chase for your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do."

"Do you, Annabeth Chase, take Perseus Jackson for your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do."

"Then you may kiss the bride."

* * *

**The End**


	21. Acknowledgements

**Acknowledgements**

**Everyone, I can't believe this series is over. I have grown so much as an author during this time (and those of you who have stuck with me since Mission Marvel certainly know this) but goodness knows I still have a long way to go. **

**I initially published Mission Marvel in… geez, fall of last year. I took it down because it sucked and republished it in November of last year. So it's been a year and a half journey. That's INSANE. I feel like it's been just like a couple months. **

**I have appreciated your reviews, your comments, and your feedback. I can't believe all the attention this story has gotten. News later, but for now I'd like to acknowledge some people.**

**First of all, ****DaughterofAthena233.**

**I'd like a big round of applause to all of you in your respective places in the world for this awesome person. She (or he, because assuming on the internet is a path to destruction) has stuck with me since Chapter 5 of Percy Jackson: Mission Marvel. She has reviewed every single chapter of all of my stories after that point. DaughterofAthena223, I seriously cannot express how much your reviews have meant to me. It's really cool to think that I've helped you. If I knew you in real life, I'm pretty sure we would have been friends.**

**Second, ****Br0kenTh0rn.**

**Don't know where he has been over this story, for some reason stopped reviewing after Chapter 3, but still deserves a shout out. He has given me a LOT of suggestions and really great ideas so I appreciate that.**

**Third, ****HISHB.**

**He has always been great at reminding me to update when I've kind of lost interest. Thanks a ton!**

**NinjaFang1331**

**Has also been with me since Chapter 5 of Mission Marvel! He has been highly consistent and has reviewed almost all of my chapters. Thank you so much. Thanks for letting me know SOMEONE is reading this!**

**ShadeFireDragon**

**Thought He/she deserved a shout out even though I think I lost his/her interest after Infinity War! Their reviews have always been awesome.**

**Gottalovebooks14**

**Has been with me since Chapter 14 of Mission Marvel!**

**Okay, I think that's it for the reviewer wall. News time!**

**So, yes, this is the end of the series for now. There will not be another story as of this moment. But I think you'll be seeing me soon. I have a lot of story ideas in my head that want to get on to paper. I want to get into the world of Star Wars fics, some Spider-Man stuff. Not saying what's happening now because I don't want people stealing my ideas! I'll also be revising my other fanfictions, because I really want to be able to look at the first seven chapters of PJMM without turning off my computer in shame. **

**Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can't believe this is over, I was writing the Epilogue and I was like, wait, this is the last chapter! No more alerts for a new story….**

**Love you all!**

**Yours in demigodishness, and all that. Peace out.**

**-the8horcrux**


	22. PJFFH alert

**I'm such a hypocrite, but…**

**Percy Jackson: Far From Home is out. Please read and review!**


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